Mental association of time and valence.

Five experiments investigated the association between time and valence. In the first experiment, participants classified temporal expressions (e.g.

The Mental Timeline in a Crossed-Hands Paradigm.

The existence of a lateral mental timeline is well established; in left-to-right writing cultures, past is associated with the left, future with the right. Accordingly, participants respond faster with the left to past, and with the right to future. Recent studies indicate that this association does not reverse when participants respond with their hands crossed.

To fly or not to fly? The automatic influence of negation on language-space associations.

Embodied models of language understanding propose a close association between language comprehension and sensorimotor processes. Specifically, they suggest that meaning representation is grounded in modal experiences. Converging evidence suggests that words automatically activate spatial processing.

Starting off on the right foot: strong right-footers respond faster with the right foot to positive words and with the left foot to negative words.

Recent studies have provided evidence for an association between valence and left/right modulated by handedness, which is predicted by the body-specificity hypothesis (Casasanto, 2009) and also reflected in response times. We investigated whether such a response facilitation can also be observed with foot responses. Right-footed participants classified positive and negative words according to their valence by pressing a key with their left or right foot.

What's up? Emotion-specific activation of vertical space during language processing.

The relationship between language processing and vertical space has been shown for various groups of words including valence words, implicit location words, and words referring to religious concepts. However, it remains unclear whether these are single phenomena or whether there is an underlying common mechanism. Here, we show that the evaluation of word valence interacts with motor responses in the vertical dimension, with positive (negative) evaluations facilitating upward (downward) responses.

Musical metaphors: evidence for a spatial grounding of non-literal sentences describing auditory events.

This study investigated whether the spatial terms high and low, when used in sentence contexts implying a non-literal interpretation, trigger similar spatial associations as would have been expected from the literal meaning of the words. In three experiments, participants read sentences describing either a high or a low auditory event (e.g.

Language and vertical space: on the automaticity of language action interconnections.

Grounded models of language processing propose a strong connection between language and sensorimotor processes (Barsalou, 1999, 2008; Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002). However, it remains unclear how functional and automatic these connections are for understanding diverse sets of words (Ansorge, Kiefer, Khalid, Grassl, & König, 2010). Here, we investigate whether words referring to entities with a typical location in the upper or lower visual field (e.

Embodiment and second-language: automatic activation of motor responses during processing spatially associated L2 words and emotion L2 words in a vertical Stroop paradigm.

Converging evidence suggests that understanding our first-language (L1) results in reactivation of experiential sensorimotor traces in the brain. Surprisingly, little is known regarding the involvement of these processes during second-language (L2) processing. Participants saw L1 or L2 words referring to entities with a typical location (e.

Relating numeric cognition and language processing: do numbers and words share a common representational platform?

Numerical processing and language processing are both grounded in space. In the present study we investigated whether these are fully independent phenomena, or whether they share a common basis. If number processing activates spatial dimensions that are also relevant for understanding words, then we can expect that processing numbers may influence subsequent lexical access to words.

Reading "sun" and looking up: the influence of language on saccadic eye movements in the vertical dimension.

Traditionally, language processing has been attributed to a separate system in the brain, which supposedly works in an abstract propositional manner. However, there is increasing evidence suggesting that language processing is strongly interrelated with sensorimotor processing. Evidence for such an interrelation is typically drawn from interactions between language and perception or action.

Keep your hands crossed: the valence-by-left/right interaction is related to hand, not side, in an incongruent hand-response key assignment.

The body-specificity hypothesis (Casasanto, 2009) associates positive emotional valence and the space surrounding the dominant hand, and negative valence and the space surrounding the non-dominant hand. This effect has not only been found for manual responses, but also for the left and right side. In the present study, we investigated whether this compatibility effect still shows when hand and side carry incongruent information, and whether it is then related to hand or to side.

From top to bottom: spatial shifts of attention caused by linguistic stimuli.

Interacting with the world around us involves dealing with constant information input. Thus, humans must selectively filter and focus attention on relevant aspects for the current situation. The current study investigates orientations of attention after words that do not convey spatial information in their meaning (e.

When up-words meet down-sentences: evidence for word- or sentence-based compatibility effects?

Participants were presented with sentences mentioning an entity with a typical location in the upper or lower vertical space (e.g., roof vs.

Do task-irrelevant direction-associated motion verbs affect action planning? Evidence from a Stroop paradigm.

Does simply seeing a word such as rise activate upward responses? The present study is concerned with bottom-up activation of motion-related experiential traces. Verbs referring to an upward or downward motion (e.g.

With the past behind and the future ahead: back-to-front representation of past and future sentences.

Several studies support the psychological reality of a mental timeline that runs from the left to the right and may strongly affect our thinking about time. Ulrich and Maienborn (Cognition 117:126-138, 2010) examined the linguistic relevance of this timeline during the processing of past- and future-related sentences. Their results indicate that the timeline is not activated automatically during sentence comprehension.

Emotional valence and physical space: limits of interaction.

According to the body-specificity hypothesis, people associate positive things with the side of space that corresponds to their dominant hand and negative things with the side corresponding to their nondominant hand. Our aim was to find out whether this association holds also true for a response time study using linguistic stimuli, and whether such an association is activated automatically. Four experiments explored this association using positive and negative words.

Root versus roof: automatic activation of location information during word processing.

In four experiments, participants were presented with nouns referring to entities that are associated with an up or down location (e.g., roof, root).