Date created: | Last Updated:

Category: Project

Description: 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