Contributions of action representations to tool naming.

Abstract

We present new evidence on the role that action representations play in the speeded naming of tools/utensils. In a series of experiments (minimum sample size = 30), participants held in working memory (WM) a sequence of two hand actions, both of which involved a particular hand (left or right) and orientation of the wrist (horizontal or vertical). While under this load, participants named objects that had a horizontal or vertical handle aligned to the left or right. Naming time was elevated when the WM load and the object's handle were congruent on one dimension (hand or orientation) but incongruent on the other, relative to when both dimensions were congruent or incongruent. We assumed that features of the action sequence in WM, including the laterality and wrist orientation of the hand postures, are bound together. If just one of these features (say, hand laterality) is recapitulated in the object presented for naming, a mismatching feature (in this instance, wrist orientation) would automatically be retrieved from WM. The resulting conflict induces a delay in the naming response (partial-repetition cost). No such effect was observed when the task required a decision about the upright/inverted status or the semantic category of an object (i.e., whether the tool/utensil is typically found in a kitchen or garage). Furthermore, no partial-repetition cost occurred on a speeded reach-and-grasp action afforded by the handle of a depicted object. We infer that the effect of action features in WM occurred because motor representations were directly consulted for name retrieval. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).