The effect of implied orientation derived from verbal context on picture recognition

Perceptual symbol systems assume an analogue relationship between a symbol and its referent, whereas amodal symbol systems assume an arbitrary relatio nship between a symbol and its referent. According to perceptual symbol the ories, the complete representation of an object, called a simulation, shoul d reflect physical characteristics of the object. Amodal theories, in contr ast, do not make this prediction. We tested the hypothesis, derived from pe rceptual symbol theories, that people mentally represent the orientation of an object implied by a verbal description. Orientation (vertical-horizonta l) was manipulated by having participants read a sentence that implicitly s uggested a particular orientation for an object. Then recognition latencies to pictures of the object in each of the two orientations were measured. P ictures matching the orientation of the object implied by the sentence were responded to faster than pictures that did not match the orientation. This finding is interpreted as offering support for theories positing perceptua l symbols systems.