| According to Embodied Cognition Theory,language comprehension is grounded in perceptual and motor experience acquired during the interaction with the external world.As people read a text,they will construct simulation to represent motion contents of a text.A growing body of research has proven that language comprehension is based on sensorimotor experience and is experiential in nature.However,mental simulation is believed to be anchored in individuals’ direct experience and be constructed in a first-person perspective,and it is not clear whether mental simulation can be affected by readers’ indirect experience and thus be constructed in a third-person perspective.To figure this out,the present study used elderly stereotype priming paradigm to active young people’s stereotype of the elderly,which address the following tree questions:(1)Does the activation of elderly stereotype influence Chinese EFL learners’ comprehension of fast and slow motion events described in their L1?(2)Does the activation of elderly stereotype influence Chinese EFL learners’ comprehension of fast and slow motion events described in their L2?(3)Are there any differences between L1 comprehension and L2 comprehension?The two experiments,one for L1,the other L2,adopted a 3(Priming types: photos of elderly faces,photos of young faces,photos of objects)× 2(Motion event: fast,slow)within-subject design.Thirty-five Chinese undergraduates or postgraduates from SISU took part in experiment one,and thirty-one Chinese undergraduates or postgraduates majoring in English took part in experiment two.Photos of elderly faces,young faces or objects were randomly presented on the computer screen,and then participants were required to read and comprehend sentences and response as soon as possible after their fully understanding.The experiments were programmed by Experiment Builder produced in SR company,and their response time and eye movements were recorded by Eyelink 1000.The results were analyzed by SPSS 24.0.The findings are as follows:(1)The behavioral results revealed that there was a significant main effect of priming type condition in terms of response time in experiment one,F(2,60)= 13.321,p =.004<0.01,indicating that elderly stereotype priming made participants spend more time on comprehending motion events described in Chinese.And there was a marginal main effect of speed condition,F(1,31)= 3.583,p =.068>.05.However,the same pattern was not observed in experiment two.Neither main effect of priming type condition(F(2,56)=.076,p =.927>.05)nor main effect of speed condition(F(1,28)=.076,p =.927>.05)was found here.It illustrated that the activation of elderly stereotype influenced the comprehension of motion events described in L1 but in L2.(2)The results of eye-movement measures demonstrated that stereotype priming had an enduring effect on participants’ comprehension of motion events in their L1.For the verb AOI(target AOI),the main effect of priming type condition was significant for total fixation time(F(2,60)= 10.578,p =.002<.005),second fixation duration(F(2,30)= 152.4,p<.00),and regression time(F(1,32)= 9.583,p =.003<.05).As for the path AOI(front target AOI),the main effect of priming type condition was significant for total fixation time(F(2,62)= 13.338,p =.001<0.05),second fixation duration(F(1,32)= 11.14,p =.002<.05),and regression time(F(1.2,37)= 3.821,p =.05).As for the goal AOI,there was a significant difference for total fixation time(F(1,35)= 7.58,p =.007 <.001))and second fixation duration(F(1,32)= 51.201,p =.031<.001),and regression time(F(1,34)= 9.113,p =.004<.005).No significant main effect was found by eye-movement measures which reflected early stages of lexical processing.The results demonstrated that the effects of elderly stereotype priming appeared at the late stages of language comprehension.Besides,no main effect was found within any AOI in experiment two.(3)The results of IA fixation % showed that in elderly stereotype priming condition,the participants were more likely to pay more attention to the goal AOI(F(2,60)= 4.843,p =.008<0.05),and pay less attention to the agent AOI(F(2,62)= 8.715,p =.003<0.01).The results indicate that the effects of elderly stereotype priming mainly appear within the goal AOI,which adds growing evidence that L1 comprehension is embodied.The activation of elderly stereotype makes readers simulate the bodily states of the elderly and thus mental simulation is constructed in a third-person perspective.Therefore,the simulation is going on at a stereotype-congruent speed,which exerts an influence on the fixation and comprehension of motion events.To summarize,the activation of elderly stereotype influences readers’ comprehension of motion events described in their L1,which suggests that mental simulation can be constructed in a third-person perspective.Beside,the activation of elderly stereotype fails to cast a shadow over readers’ comprehension of motion events described in their L2,which reveals that the processing mechanism of L1 comprehension and L2 comprehension may be varied. |
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