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Abstract
When they live through an experience, individuals both perceive sensorimotor components in the environment (perception) and reactivate properties associated with the experience that are not perceptually present (memory). According to embodiment theory, memory consists of sensorimotor traces that are reactivated during the experience. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that a reactivated property in memory can influence the processing of a stimulus that shares this property even if the property itself is not perceptually present. In two experiments, participants had to categorise pictures of products which were typically sweet or unsweetened (they were asked if the products were edible or inedible). These pictures were preceded by (Experiment 1) or presented simultaneously with (Experiment 2) either a visual pattern that had been associated with the property of sweetness during a first phase or a visual pattern which was not associated with this property. The results revealed that the presentation of the pattern previously associated with the property of sweetness had a facilitatory effect (Experiment 1) or an interference effect (Experiment 2) on the categorisation of the pictures of sweet products. We propose an interpretation in terms of reciprocal influences between memory and perceptual mechanisms that involve the same sensorimotor properties.