Preschooler's ERPs of online/offline visualizations and embodiment theory

We explored the relationships between a perceptual-attention task and a word-verification task using event-related potential (ERPs) in preschool children. Adopting an embodied multiple representation perspective, we set up the relationships between online (visual attention) and offline (mental imagery) simulation in the two tasks to test key aspects of abstract word acquisition. Online visualization of all word types, during visual selective attention, elicited early frontal and occipital activation (~ 100 ms). The extent of such activation was correlated with a higher occipital late component (800 ms) during offline visualization concurrent with processing more abstract/difficult words. Consistent with developmental vision-language interaction embodiment models, our results support the tenet that the transmission of word meanings by typically developing children may be intimately linked to the visual perceptual contexts in which words are learned.