The Influence of Bodily Experience on Children's Language Processing. (July 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wellsby, Michele; Pexman, Penny M.
• Is Part Of: Topics in cognitive science. Volume 6:Number 3(2014:Jul.)
• Page Start: 425
• Page End: 441
• Publication Date: 2014-07
• Subjects: Cognitive science -- Periodicals; Cognitive Science -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1111/tops.12092
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1756-8757

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="tops12092-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>The Body–Object Interaction (BOI) variable measures how easily a human body can physically interact with a word's referent (Siakaluk, Pexman, Aguilera, Owen, &amp; Sears, <xref ref-type="link" rid="tops12092-bib-0021">2008</xref>). A facilitory BOI effect has been observed with adults in language tasks, with faster and more accurate responses for high BOI words (e.g., mask) than for low BOI words (e.g., ship; Wellsby, Siakaluk, Owen, &amp; Pexman, <xref ref-type="link" rid="tops12092-bib-0025">2011</xref>). We examined the development of this effect in children. Fifty children (aged 6–9 years) and a group of 21 adults completed a word naming task with high and low BOI words. Younger children (aged 6–7 years) did not show a BOI effect, but older children (aged 8–9 years) showed a significant facilitory BOI effect, as did adults. Magnitude of children's BOI effect was related to age as well as reading skills. These results suggest that bodily experience (as measured by the BOI variable) begins to influence visual word recognition behavior by about 8 years of age.</p> </abstract>