Age of Acquisition and Language Embodiment Across the Lifespan

Embodied language theories propose that language and action are inter-related. Age of Acquisition (AoA) effects refer to findings that early learned words, phrases, and concepts are responded to more quickly than later learned stimuli, but this factor is often not considered in embodiment studies. Using lexical decision tasks (LDT), the current study tested the effect of AoA on motor responses to hand-related and non-hand-related words across younger (aged 18-44, N = 40, Experiment 1) and older (aged 50-65, N = 40, Experiment 2) adults. Experiment 1 found no significant main effect for hand-relatedness but a significant interaction effect between AoA and Hand Relatedness –early learned hand-related words elicited quicker hand responses than early learned non-hand related words. However, late learned hand-related words elicited slower hand responses than late learned non-hand related words. Experiment 2 also found no significant main effect for hand-relatedness, and no significant interaction effect between AoA and Hand Relatedness, which suggests that embodied effects could also be age-dependent. The implications of these findings for language embodiment theories are discussed.