The visual size of graspable objects is needed to induce the potentiation of grasping behaviors even with verbal stimuli

Article title. The visual size of graspable objects is needed to induce the potentiation of grasping behaviors even with verbal stimuli

Abstract. Merely perceiving objects usually grasped with a power or a precision grip (e.g., an apple vs. a cherry) potentiates power-grip and precision-grip responses, respectively. According to the size-coding account, this potentiation effect would be due to the compatibility between size codes associated with both stimuli and responses rather than to the simulation of motor information stored at a conceptual level (i.e., the embodied account). At a stimuli level, a size coding would occur because objects associated with a power grip are usually presented in a larger visual size than objects associated with a precision grip. However, this explanation is challenged by results showing that reading nouns of objects associated with power or precision grip also leads to potentiation effects despite the fact that the visual size of the displayed object is no longer perceived. Therefore, we designed three experiments to better understand this word-based potentiation effect and to investigate whether it relies on size codes. Our results showed a word-based potentiation effect only when the object nouns were interleaved with pictures depicting the objects in their typical visual size. We discuss the contributions of these results for both the size-coding account and the embodied account of the potentiation effect of grasping behaviors.

Keywords: Embodied cognition; Potentiation effect; Manipulable objects; Language; Motor representation, Size-coding account

文章标题：通过视觉大小诱导可抓取物体的抓握行为增强，即便在语言刺激下。
摘要：仅仅感知通常用力量抓或精确抓握的物体（例如，苹果与樱桃），分别会增强力量抓和精确抓握的反应。根据大小编码理论，这种增强效应应归因于与两种刺激和反应相关的大小编码之间的兼容性，而非对存储在概念层面的运动信息的模拟（即具身化理论）。在刺激层面，大小编码的发生是因为与力量抓相关的物体通常以比与精确抓握相关的物体更大的视觉大小呈现。然而，这一解释受到了以下结果的挑战：阅读与力量或精确抓握相关的名词时，即便不再感知显示物体的视觉大小，也会产生增强效应。因此，我们设计了三项实验，以更好地理解基于词语的增强效应，并探究其是否依赖于大小编码。我们的结果显示，只有在物体名词与描绘物体典型视觉大小的图片交织时，才会出现基于词语的增强效应。我们讨论了这些结果对大小编码理论和抓握行为增强效应的具身化理论的贡献。
关键词：具身认知；增强效应；可操纵物体；语言；运动表征；大小编码理论