A pre-registered, multi-lab non-replication of the Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE)

Abstract

The Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) is a well-known demonstration of the role of motor activity in the comprehension of language. Participants are asked to make sensibility judgments on sentences by producing movements toward the body or away from the body. The ACE is the finding that movements are faster when the direction of the movement (e.g., toward) matches the direction of the action in the to-be-judged sentence (e.g., Art gave you the pen describes action toward you). We report on a pre-registered, multi-lab replication of one version of the ACE. The results show that none of the 18 labs involved in the study observed a reliable ACE, and that the meta-analytic estimate of the size of the ACE was essentially zero.

Citation

Morey, R., Kaschak, M. P., Diez-Álamo, A. M., Glenberg, A. M., Zwaan, R., Lakens, D., Ibáñez, A., Garcia, A., Gianelli, C., Jones, J. L., Madden, J., Alifano, F., Bergen, B., Bloxsom, N. G., Bub, D. N., Cai, Z. G., Chartier, C. R., Chatterjee, A., Conwell, E., Cook, S. W., Davis, J. D., Evers, E., Girard, S., Harter, D., Hartung, F., Herrera, E., Huettig, F., Humphries, S., Juanchich, M., Kühne, K., Lu, S., Lynes, T., Masson, M. E., Ostarek, M., Pessers, S., Reglin, R., Steegen, S., Thiessen, E. D., Thomas, L. E., Trott, S., Vandekerckhove, J., Vanpaemel, W., Vlachou, M., Williams, K., & Ziv-Crispel, N. (2022). A pre-registered, multi-lab non-replication of the Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE). Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29, 1239.

Bibtex

@article{morey_etal:2022:Compatibility,
    title   = {{A} pre-registered, multi-lab non-replication of the {A}ction-sentence {C}ompatibility {E}ffect ({A}{C}{E})},
    author  = {Morey, Richard and Kaschak, M. P. and Diez-Álamo, A. M. and Glenberg, A. M. and Zwaan, Rolf and Lakens, Daniel and Ibáñez, A. and Garcia, A. and Gianelli, C. and Jones, J. L. and Madden, J. and Alifano, F. and Bergen, B. and Bloxsom, N. G. and Bub, D. N. and Cai, Z. G. and Chartier, C. R. and Chatterjee, A. and Conwell, E., and Cook, S. W. and Davis, J. D. and Evers, E. and Girard, S. and Harter, D. and Hartung, F. and Herrera, E., and Huettig, F. and Humphries, S. and Juanchich, M. and Kühne, K. and Lu, S. and Lynes, T. and Masson, M. E. and Ostarek, M. and Pessers, S. and Reglin, R. and Steegen, Sara and Thiessen, E. D. and Thomas, L. E. and Trott, S. and Vandekerckhove, Joachim and Vanpaemel, Wolf and Vlachou, M. and Williams, K. and Ziv-Crispel, N.},
    year    = {2022},
    journal = {Psychonomic Bulletin \& Review},
    volume  = {29},
    pages   = {1239}
}