Addressing the role of new verbal labels associated with novel actions: a behavioral study

Language and action might have co-evolved in the human brain. Indeed, many neuroscientific and neuropsychological studies show an anatomical and functional link between these cognitive functions. Although the interest in the impact of semantics of language on cognition is increasing, studies on the semantic modulation of action are dated and mostly concern existing words. Our study focus on new labels’ impact might have on novel sensorimotor experiences. We hypothesize that a new label might act as an anchor on the novel sensorimotor set of information. We extend this suggestion assuming that, when associated with novel actions, new labels facilitate categorization and motor chunking processes on the action sequence. Consequently, labeled actions are represented in a superordinate chunk and therefore recalled and performed faster. In order to address this hypothesis, we intend to carry out a behavioral experiment in which participants have to alternately execute two novel actions acquired through illustration videos alternately. Crucially, for half of the participants, actions are also associated with new labels. Qualitative results obtained from a pilot study on ten participants suggest that, on average, participants start the action earlier when the action is associated with a new label. However, the distribution of the answers shows a peak of faster answers when there is no action-label association, although for fewer participants. More data from other participants will be collected and analyzed before the conference. Results will be discussed in the framework of recent theories on impact of language on cognition.