The current study compared the strengths of the BOI effect, i.e., the association between the child-rated BOI and word recognition, in Chinese children from the Mainland and HK. The age effect on the association was examined as well. The BOI effect and its interaction with age were significant in both the accuracy and latency analyses. More importantly, the significant community difference in the BOI effect was observed in the latency analysis.
BOI effect in Chinese children
With the child-rated BOIs, the current study illustrated the significant BOI effect on both the response accuracy and speed levels in Chinese children. However, the previous studies in alphabetic-language-speaking children (i.e., Inkster et al.
2016; Wellsby and Pexman
2014) only observed the BOI effect in the latency analysis. One interpretation is that the current study utilized the child-rated BOI, which enabled the association between the children’s bodily experiences with objects and word recognition to be investigated more appropriately. This interpretation is consistent with findings in adults; with BOI ratings from individuals in the same age group as the participants (i.e., adults), the BOI effect was significant at the response accuracy and speed levels (e.g., Siakaluk et al.
2008a,
b). Alternatively, the BOI effect on the accuracy level might have been induced partly by the feature that body-part terms and related events are commonly used to express Chinese concepts (Yu
2009). This feature might highlight the role of sensorimotor experiences in acquiring and processing concepts in the Chinese language, resulting in benefits at the response speed and accuracy levels (Li et al.
2007). At the same time, although the current sample only involved a narrow age range, the results demonstrated that the BOI effect increased with age. It is possible that the BOI effect, as an aspect of cognition, is sensitive to age, as older children tend to demonstrate higher accuracy rates and faster processing speed in language tasks.
The overall performance on the lexical decision task was similar for the children from the two communities; however, the accuracy and latency analyses showed significant community differences in the BOI effect. The HK children had smaller BOI effects than those of the Mainland children. Such a community difference may have been elicited by fewer sensorimotor representations in the mental lexicon of the HK children relative to those of the Mainland children. As mentioned earlier, HK children, in general, tend to have less time for regular or nonregular physical activities, particularly in large dynamic environments, compared to their Mainland counterparts. It is possible that interactions in dynamic outdoor spaces may influence the BOI effect, and this aspect should be further explored in future research.
In addition, this community difference in the BOI effect suggests that children’s BOI ratings are sensitive to various aspects. These aspects might include linguistic, physiological, perceptual, cultural, and ecological differences between communities, all of which might influence the role of bodily interactions with objects in conceptual processing (Barsalou
2008; Wellsby and Pexman
2014). For example, it might be related to differences in children’s linguistic skills. Since Chinese is the first language of all children from the two Chinese communities in the current sample and their reading ability (i.e., Chinese character reading) was controlled, the present study did not further explore the influence of the participants’ linguistic skills in other languages. However, many children in Hong Kong become proficient Chinese (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals from an early age (Wang et al.
2010), and literature on bilinguals has also shown the effect of the learning experience of L2 on children’s literacy performance in L1 (e.g., Chen et al.
2010; Choi et al.
2018). For example, Chen et al. (
2010) found that English instruction can facilitate children’s phonological awareness and pinyin (i.e., an alphabetic script with regular letter-sound correspondence) skills. In the context of embodied cognition, some studies have found a larger extent of involvement of sensorimotor representations in processing the first language than the second language (e.g., Vukovic and Shtyrov
2014). It has been suggested that this difference between L1 and L2 may be due to the rich sensorimotor contexts in which early L1 acquisition occurs (e.g., Vukovic and Shtyrov
2014). The influence of the second language on the first language in terms of the BOI effect has not been explored yet. However, it is possible that similar to the situation in literacy performance (e.g., Chen et al.
2010; Choi et al.
2018), children’s L2 (e.g., English) learning experiences can lead to differences in L1 (e.g., Chinese) in relation to sensorimotor representations.
The community difference in the BOI effect might also be related to other environmental factors, such as socioeconomic status (SES, e.g., parental incomes and educational levels). SES has been found to play a critical role in children’s linguistic achievements (Pinquart and Ebeling
2020; Tan et al.
2020). A possible explanation for the differences in BOI is that variants in socioeconomic backgrounds may lead to unequal access to resources and opportunities for physical interactions with objects that impact BOI experiences and understanding. Previous studies have demonstrated a negative correlation between SES and children’s daily screen time (e.g., Tandon et al.
2012), which has been found to be negatively correlated with the extent of the BOI effect (Xu and Liu
2022).
In addition, children’s characteristics, especially those associated with their interactions with objects, may result in differences in the BOI effect. To illustrate, two aspects of grit, i.e., consistency of interest and perseverance of effort, can influence children’s engagement during tasks (Karlen et al.
2019). Previous studies have found that children with higher levels of grit tend to perform better academically (Cosgrove et al.
2018). In addition to formal learning activities, these two aspects might also affect children’s physical interactions with the objects around them, leading to variances in the extent of the BOI effect. As well as being a critical factor influencing learning (Ainley et al.
2002), children’s interests might impact their building of sensorimotor representations. A child interested in exploring objects with physical interactions is likely to be involved in these activities more frequently and to participate in them more deeply. More importantly, these diverse factors may interplay to influence the BOI effect in children, which should be investigated further in the future.
Limitations, future studies, and conclusions
As one of the first studies investigating the BOI effect in Chinese children, the present study controlled the possible impacts of latent variables to some extent by controlling Chinese character reading, which has correlations with latent variables such as socioeconomic status (Liu et al.
2016) and daily routines (Trudeau and Shephard
2008). Future studies could take these latent variables directly into account. To figure out possible reasons leading to the community differences in the BOI effect, children in different communities within Mainland China should be compared. Their physical activities, as well as their fine and gross motor skills, which are related to physical activities and could affect physical interactions with referents (Suggate and Stoeger
2014,
2017; Winter et al.
2021), could be measured and compared between communities in future studies. At the same time, there is a need for further examination of the influences of more factors from diverse aspects (e.g., linguistic and ecological differences). Also, longitudinal studies can be conducted to identify a complete developmental pattern. In addition, Winter et al. (
2021) suggested a possible difference in the BOI effect between children and adults, which was not investigated in the current study. Future studies could involve participants from different age groups, i.e., young children, older children, and adults, with BOI ratings from the corresponding participants or those in the same age groups as the participants, to further investigate the underlying mechanism of the BOI effect.
The current study extends previous findings with the child-rated BOI by demonstrating the BOI effect in Chinese children at accuracy and latency levels. Moreover, from the current results showing the community difference in the BOI effect, a possibility emerges that the embodied system could have different levels of involvement during lexical processing in children with various daily routines. Practically, the current findings suggest that bodily interactions with objects, even without explicit teaching and learning, could form a basis for developing conceptual knowledge. More leisure activities, which could assist children to interact with different objects in dynamic environments, should be involved in their daily lives.