Is ‘a smile’ the same as ‘to smile’? Somatic commensurability of visual and verbal stimuli

old_uid3483
titleIs ‘a smile’ the same as ‘to smile’? Somatic commensurability of visual and verbal stimuli
start_date2007/11/20
schedule15h45
onlineno
location_inforoom 1.63
summaryFour experiments reveal that both exposure to verbal (e.g., the verb ‘to smile’) and visual affect expressions (e.g., a smiling face) – cross modally representing comparable affective expressions – give rise to commensurable somatic processes (i.e. facial muscle activity). Such muscular synchronization with a verbal or visual stimulus –presented subliminally or supraliminally – is also shown to influence evaluative judgments of other stimuli. Evidence for somatic commensurability, as presented here, supports the argument that language mapping facial muscular activity directly is not amodal but bodily (somatically) grounded. These findings also provide a bridge between research on the neurobiological basis of language and behavioral research.
responsiblesZondervan