A graded-embodied theory account for the processing of emotional stimuli: the case of sentences, images, and faces.

Abstract

A series of experiments were devised to test the idea that sensorimotor systems activate during the processing of emotionally-laden stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2 participants were asked to judged the pleasantness of emotionally-laden sentences while participants held a pen in the mouth. Experiments 3 and 4 were similar to the previous experiments but the experimental materials were emotionally-laden images. In Experiment 5 and 6 the same bodily manipulation used throughout the previous experiments was kept while participants judged facial expressions. The first pair of experiments replicated findings suggesting that sensorimotor systems are activated during the processing of emotionally-laden language. However, follow-up experiments suggested that dual activation of both perceptual and motor systems is not always necessary. For the particular case of emotionally-laden stimuli, the results suggested that the perceptual system seems to drive the processing. It is also shown that a high resonance between sensorimotor properties afforded by the stimuli and the sensorimotor systems activated in the cognizer elicit emotional states. The results invite to revise strong versions of embodiment accounts and rather support a graded-embodiment view.