Objects concepts and action: Extracting affordances from objects’ parts

Two experiments with a part generation task show that rated salience and production order of parts in artifacts are first predicted by their relevance for canonical actions, but also vary, depending on the current situation. In three further experiments participants read sentences describing actions (The woman shared the orange) followed by objects` parts from which it was easy or not to extract affordances (slice vs. pulp). They had to perform a part verification task or to evaluate the sensibility of the combination. Parts from which it was easy to derive affordances were processed earlier and the combination was evaluted more sensible. Overall, results support the view that sensory-motor simulations underlie conceptualization and that concepts are action-based (Barsalou, 1999; Glenberg, 1997).