This phenomenon, called embodied cognition, proposes that the way we interact with our environment shapes our understanding of language. Our bodies, particularly our hands in this case, play an essential role in representing the meaning of words. Now, imagine if artificial intelligence could learn the same way! By teaching AI to process words through embodied cognition, we could help them truly understand the world around them.
To dive deeper into this fascinating research on how our bodies shape language comprehension, check out the full article!
Scientists observed how the brain responds to words representing hand-manipulable objects, when a participant’s hands were either free to move or restrained. They showed that brain activity in response to hand-manipulable words was significantly reduced by hand restraints. Verbal responses were also affected by hand constraints. Their results support the idea of embodied cognition, which proposes that the meaning of words is represented through interactions between the body and the environment. Understanding how words are processed through embodied cognition could also be useful for artificial intelligence to learn the meaning of objects.