The nature of semantic priming by subliminal spatial words: Embodied or disembodied?

The nature of semantic priming by subliminal spatial words: Embodied or disembodied? Roberto Bottini Madalina Bucur Davide Crepaldi

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The nature of semantic priming by subliminal spatial words: Embodied or disembodied? 2016 Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 10.1037/xge0000197 unknownnd-the-nature-of-semantic-priming-by unknownnd-the-nature-of-semantic-priming-by.txt, the project's staged copy 763454b36c0113b4b41506b30d580b54e4fcd545 open-access cognitive-psychology

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0 spans located by searching the stored text for the quote's exact words, allowing any whitespace between them null-result Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. masked semantic priming by spatial words Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. behavioural-experiment behavioural-experiment Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms Sensorimotor activation during comprehension arises from integrating linguistic information with non-linguistic information held in modality-specific cortices, and that integration requires conscious access, so subliminal words stay confined to segregated linguistic networks. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms Without awareness, processing remains restricted to specialised, segregated neural networks, which is why distant sensorimotor and association areas are not recruited. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms Primes that are low-prototypical members of their category trigger disembodied centre-surround inhibition, which reverses the sign of masked priming and explains the negative effects reported elsewhere. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Prime duration and stimulus onset asynchrony were confounded, so the paper cannot say which drove the effect. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Why this paper found facilitation where Dudschig et al. found inhibition is left unresolved and handed to future work. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the response keys were always described by COLOUR (green or red, counterbalanced across subjects) and never by spatial position eliminates: that the effect is spatial stimulus-response compatibility rather than semantic priming · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. a practice block of 32 trials preceded the experiment eliminates: that early experimental trials are contaminated by learning the task · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. embodied semantic priming embodied semantic priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. symbolic priming symbolic priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. sensorimotor sensorimotor Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. conscious access conscious access Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. A NULL WITH ITS OWN POSITIVE CONTROL, IN THE SAME APPARATUS: `when symbolic and nonsemantic mechanisms were prevented, allowing only for a genuinely embodied semantic priming, no effect was found. Conversely, facilitation emerged in the same experimental paradigm when embodied priming was prevented and symbolic priming was allowed.` Six experiments, and the machine works when you leave the other route open. A failed manipulation cannot selectively succeed - which is the objection every unconscious-priming null has to answer, and this one answers it by construction rather than by argument. Same structure as hesselmann2016 at three times the scale Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. AND THE LEVEL CLAIM IS EXACT: `Quotation withheld.` Unconscious words reach meaning and stop before simulation. The `although` is the whole value: this is not a claim that unconscious processing is shallow - the words got to semantics - but that the chain BREAKS at a specific link. A corpus of masked-priming records mostly argues about whether meaning was reached at all; this one grants that and asks what comes after Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. AND THE CONCLUSION IS OFFERED AS A CONDITION, NOT A MECHANISM: `Quotation withheld.` `might need` is inside the quote. What makes this more than a hedge is that it is falsifiable in an obvious way - show sensorimotor activation from an unconscious word under any conditions and it is gone - and the authors have just spent six experiments failing to do that themselves Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. AND IT SITS AGAINST dehaene1998 IN THIS CORPUS, WITHOUT CONTRADICTING IT. dehaene1998 concluded that an unreportable numeral was `unconsciously processed according to task instructions, ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE MOTOR SYSTEM`. This paper finds no sensorimotor activation from unconscious words at all. Both can be right, because `reaches the motor system` names two things: dehaene1998's is a TRAINED RESPONSE MAPPING - a digit compared to 5, a hand prepared, an arbitrary rule applied - and Bottini's is SIMULATION OF MEANING, the claim that understanding `up` re-enacts upward experience. An unconscious stimulus can drive the first and fail the second. Same shape as the two senses of `nonconscious`, and the corpus currently indexes both pairs under one heading Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. replicates → Ansorge et al. (2010), Experiment 1 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. contradicts → Dudschig et al. (2014) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. contradicts → the elaborate processing hypothesis (Kunde, Kiesel, & Hoffmann, 2003) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. contradicts → radical theories of Embodied Semantics Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. embodied semantic priming —contrasted-with→ symbolic priming embodied semantic priming symbolic priming strength of the relation: 0.95 · note: THE CONTRAST IS THE EXPERIMENT. The two routes are pitted against each other by closing one and opening the other in the same paradigm, and the asymmetry of the result - null for embodied, facilitation for symbolic - is the paper. Weight 0.95: explicit in the quote, and the design exists for nothing else. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. ANOVA ANOVA Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. effect size effect size Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. t-test t-test Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. correlation correlation Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. regression regression Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. standard deviation standard deviation Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. median split median split Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. confidence interval confidence interval Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. arcsine transformation arcsine transformation Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. In Experiment 2 no priming effect emerged with spatial words. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. EVIDENCE CORRECTED (RE-GROUNDED - THE POINTER WAS WRONG, NOT THE CLAIM) · Experiment 3 raised the prime duration from 33 to 50 ms to test whether priming emerges while primes stay outside awareness. EVIDENCE CORRECTED: RE-GROUNDED - THE POINTER WAS WRONG, NOT THE CLAIM. The old evidence was verbatim, anchored and correctly cut, and it contained NONE of this claim's numbers (33, 50). The paper states the claim in one sentence elsewhere and the tagger did not use it. the project, 2026-08-23: 'WE HAVE SPENT THE DAY VERIFYING THAT QUOTES ARE REAL AND NONE OF IT ASKS WHETHER THEY ARE RELEVANT.' Confirmed by reading the claim, the old span and the candidate together; the candidate carries every number AND the claim's own content words. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Primes and targets need not be semantically related for an effect to appear. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. When the task made the response mapping non-spatial so that only embodied priming could operate, no priming appeared at all — neither facilitation nor inhibition. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. In the identical paradigm with gender primes and gender symbols, where embodiment was impossible but evidence accumulation was possible, facilitatory priming reappeared. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The pattern gives a case where unconscious words are processed semantically yet activate no sensorimotor representation, so motor activation is not an automatic or necessary part of semantic processing. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. masked priming masked priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. spreading activation account spreading activation account Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. source confusion source confusion Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Stimulus-Response Mapping mechanism Stimulus-Response Mapping mechanism Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Embodied Priming Embodied Priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. d-prime d-prime Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Congruity Congruity Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. duration of the prime display duration of the prime display Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. response time response time Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. error rate error rate Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. response speed response speed Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. orientation of the colored buttons orientation of the colored buttons Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. number of syllables number of syllables Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. frequency of occurrence frequency of occurrence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 695ms vs 714ms — mean RT for congruent versus incongruent trials in Experiment 1, the baseline replication Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. p= 0.28 — the null congruity effect in Experiment 2, where primes and targets came from separate word sets Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. p= 0.41 — the null congruity effect in Experiment 5, the condition that isolated embodied priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 5 ms — size of the congruity effect for the faster half of RTs in Experiment 6, where only symbolic evidence-accumulation priming was possible Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 0.04, SD= 0.27 — mean d-prime for prime visibility in Experiment 1, not different from zero Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 480 trials — number of experimental trials each participant completed Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Twenty-four — number of participants recruited for Experiment 1 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution.

The full text of this article is not redistributable, so it is not included here. The evidence sentences are withheld with it; the tag layer and its grounding status remain. The article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000197.