Computer mouse tracking reveals motor signatures in a cognitive task of spatial language grounding

In a novel computer mouse tracking paradigm, participants read a spatial phrase such as “The blue item to the left of the red one” and then see a scene composed of 12 visual items. The task is to move the mouse cursor to the target item (here, blue), which requires perceptually grounding the spatial phrase. This entails visually identifying the reference item (here, red) and other relevant items through attentional selection. Response trajectories are attracted toward distractors that share the target color but match the spatial relation less well. Trajectories are also attracted toward items that share the reference color. A competing pair of items that match the specified colors but are in the inverse spatial relation increases attraction over-additively compared to individual items. Trajectories are also influenced by the spatial term itself. While the distractor effect resembles deviation toward potential targets in previous studies, the reference effect suggests that the relevance of the reference item for the relational task, not its role as a potential target, was critical. This account is supported by the strengthened effect of a competing pair. We conclude, therefore, that the attraction effects in the mouse trajectories reflect the neural processes that operate on sensorimotor representations to solve the relational task. The paradigm thus provides an experimental window through motor behavior into higher cognitive function and the evolution of activation in modal substrates, a longstanding topic in the area of embodied cognition.