Motion verbs and memory for motion events

Abstract

Language is widely assumed to play a role in memory by offering an additional medium of encoding visual stimuli. Given that natural languages differ, it is possible that cross-linguistic differences impact memory processes. Here we investigate the role of language (specifically, motion verbs) on memory for motion events in speakers of English, a language that preferentially encodes manner in motion verbs (e.g., driving), and Greek, a language that tends to encode path of motion in verbs (e.g., entering). English- and Greek-speaking participants viewed a series of motion events and had to a) watch the motion events silently, b) spontaneously produce a verb while watching the motion event, or c) listen to and maintain in memory a motion verb while watching the event. We later assessed participants’ memory of the path and manner of the original events. There were no effects of language-specific lexicalization biases on memory when participants watched events in silence; both English and Greek speakers remembered paths better than manners of motion. When motion verbs were available (either through subjects’ own spontaneous productions or through the hearing of a motion verb), they affected memory similarly regardless of the participants’ language: path verbs attenuated memory for (less salient, harder to remember) manners of motion but the reverse did not occur. Thus overt language affects motion memory but these effects interact with underlying, shared biases in how viewers represent motion events.