Non-native language comprehenders encode implied shapes of objects in memory

Barsalou (1999) proposes that conceptual knowledge is represented by mental simulations containing perceptual information derived from actual experiences. Although a substantial number of studies have provided evidence consistent with this view in native language comprehension, it remains unclear whether the non-native language comprehension processes also include mental simulations. The current study successfully replicates the shape match effect in sentence-picture verification (Zwaan et al., 2002) for non-native English language comprehenders, indicating native-like visual simulations. In addition, participants displayed better delayed recognition memory when the shape of the depicted objects matched the shape that was implied by the sentence than when it did not, suggesting that visual simulations were generated spontaneously in naturalistic non-native language comprehension. Additional correlational analyses revealed no relationship between English proficiency and the size of the match effect.