The Implied Shape of an Object in Adults’ and Children’s Visual Representations

ABSTRACT

When hearing an object label, a specific object may come to mind. With the phrase, “There was a balloon in the pack/air” the representation of balloon varies based on the implied shape (deflated vs. inflated). The current study investigated whether the implied shape affects sentence-picture verification for adults and preschool children. Participants heard sentences and compared them to visual stimuli (congruent, incongruent, or filler). Adults were faster when the sentence and implied shape were congruent thereby demonstrating a match effect. Across both ages, responses were more accurate when the sentence and implied shape were congruent. The children’s response accuracy indicates young children activate a specific implied shape of an object and not just a generic or prototypical shape, demonstrating a match effect. The match effect is not specific to skilled readers and could be related to an embodied theory of language comprehension. This research has implications for understanding how people conceptualize words during language comprehension by demonstrating that even children utilize implied shape information in their visual representations.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the parents, children, childcare centers, adult participants, and the research assistants who made this research possible. We also wish to thank Rolf Zwaan for graciously providing the visual stimuli used in this research.

Disclosure of Interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.