TITLE:
When the Sound-Symbolism Effect Disappears: The Differential Role of Order and Timing in Presenting Visual and Auditory Stimuli
AUTHORS:
Jelena Sučević, Dragan Janković, Vanja Ković
KEYWORDS:
Sound Symbolism; Semantics; Words; Natural Language
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.4 No.7A,
July
12,
2013
ABSTRACT: Kohler’s observation that most people match
pseudoword “maluma” to curvy objects and “takete” to spiky objects represented
the well-known example of sound symbolism—the idea that link between sound and
meaning of words was not entirely arbitrary. This study was aimed to examine
the existence of sound symbolism in natural language and to consider the
potential role of some aspects of experimental design and stimuli features
which had not been considered in experimental studies so far. Three experiments
were done in order to explore the influence of visual information on language
processing. Visual lexical decision task with the sharp-sounding and
soft-sounding verbal stimuli presented within the spiky and curvy frames was
used. Reaction time analysis in these three experiments highlighted additional
aspects of visual and language processing which influence the potential
interplay of these two processes. As results revealed, when visual information
preceded presentation of verbal material for approximately 1000 ms or when
visual and verbal material were presented simultaneously, the processing was
being delayed and the interactions of these two processes occurred. The pattern
of obtained results gave further support to the idea of sound symbolism as
pre-semantic phenomenon and the hypothesis that the effect emerged from very
early stages of language processing.