Struiksma, M. E. 1, 2 , Noordzij, M. L. 3 , Barsalou, L. 4 & Postma, A. 1, 5
1 Experimental Psychology. Helmholtz Institute. Utrecht University. Utrecht, The Netherlands
2 Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS. Utrecht University. Utrecht, The Netherlands
3 Department of Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics. University of Twente. Enschede, The Netherlands
4 Department of Psychology. Emory University. Atlanta, USA
5 Department of Neurology. University Medical Centre Utrecht. Utrecht, The Netherlands
Previous research has shown that occlusion effects occur in conceptual combination. For example, occluded properties such as 'roots' and 'soil' are not perceivable and less available for processing for the concept 'lawn'. However, for the complex concept 'rolled-up lawn' these hidden properties are perceivable and were mentioned in a property generation task. This suggests that subjects constructed perceptual simulations to solve the task. The main question of the current experiment is to what extent visual perception is dominant in perceptual simulations. To answer this question we tested occlusion effects in conceptual combination in both sighted and blind subjects. An occlusion effect was found for the generation of properties of noun phrases. Unoccluded properties were produced more often than occluded properties, but only when a revealing modifier was used (e.g. 'rolled-up lawn') and not when that same modifier was non-revealing (e.g. 'rolled-up snake'). Interestingly this effect was similar in blind and sighted subjects, which suggests an innate role for perceptual simulation. The results will be further discussed in terms of possible qualitative differences between the blind and sighted with respect to the nature of their simulations.