Do Readers Simulate the Color of Inferred Objects? Influence of Sentence Typicality and Context Position

Abstract

Embodied cognition assumes that language processing involves sensory, motor, and affective representations. However, further empirical research is required to reveal how embodied representations are used in language processing. This study investigated whether readers could represent the color of an object and whether the color was influenced by context. Thirty-five native English speakers performed a semantic Stroop task in which a sentence was presented (e.g., Joe was excited to see a bear in the woods/at the North Pole) to them. They were then presented with a word from the sentence (bear) in colored font. A series of linear mixed-effects modeling was performed to determine the reaction times under the following three-color conditions: typical (brown), atypical (white: polar bear), and an unrelated color (green). The results showed that regardless of the sentence (implying a typical brown bear or atypical white bear), typical colors received significantly faster reaction times than atypical and unrelated colors. These results were also observed when participants read context phrases (in the woods/at the North Pole) before the keywords. The findings thus suggest that readers represent typical colors of objects, regardless of context.