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Optimizing Word Learning via Links to Perceptual and Motoric Experience

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Abstract

The aim of this review is to consider how current vocabulary training methods could be optimized by considering recent scientific insights in how the brain represents conceptual knowledge. We outline the findings from several methods of vocabulary training. In each case, we consider how taking an embodied cognition perspective could impact word learning. The evidence we review suggests that vocabulary training methods can be optimized by making a congruent link between the words to learn and one’s own perceptual and motoric experiences. In particular, we suggest that motoric information about the meaning of a word could be incorporated into more standard vocabulary training methods. Finally, we consider the impact an embodied cognitive perspective may have on other characteristics of word learning, such as individual differences in learning and variations in learning different types of words, for example words from different word classes and words in different contexts.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the National Initiative Brain & Cognition program, no. 056-33-016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Lea A. Hald & Harold Bekkering

  2. Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Jacqueline de Nooijer & Tamara van Gog

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  1. Lea A. Hald
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  2. Jacqueline de Nooijer
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  3. Tamara van Gog
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Hald, L.A., de Nooijer, J., van Gog, T. et al. Optimizing Word Learning via Links to Perceptual and Motoric Experience. Educ Psychol Rev 28, 495–522 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9334-2

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