title: Individual differences in spatial cognition influence mental simulation of language.
abstract: The factors that contribute to perceptual simulation during sentence comprehension remain underexplored. Extant research on perspective taking in language has largely focused on linguistic constraints, such as the role of pronouns in guiding perspective adoption. In the present study, we identify preferential usage of egocentric and allocentric reference frames in individuals, and test the two groups on a standard sentence-picture verification task. Across three experiments, we show that individual biases in spatial reference frame adoption observed in non-linguistic tasks influence visual simulation of perspective in language. Our findings suggest that typically reported grand-averaged effects may obscure important between-subject differences, and support proposals arguing for representational pluralism, where perceptual information is integrated dynamically and in a way that is sensitive to contextual and especially individual constraints.
authors.affiliation: Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA, United Kingdom; Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. Electronic address: nv254@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nikola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vukovic
authors.affiliation: Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D065855:Spatial Processing
keywords: Embodied cognition; Individual differences; Language comprehension; Perspective taking; Spatial cognition