Three experiments were conducted to study the effects of enactive imagery (EI) on associative learning. In Experiment I, groups of Ss rated 226 verbs on EI and frequency. In Experiments II and III, Ss learned a 24- and a 16-item list, respectively. The lists consisted of the four possible stimulus-response combinations of high (H) and low (L) EI verb pairs: H-H, H-L, L-H, L-L. In both experiments, EI was found to be a significant factor on the stimulus side, performance being superior when the stimulus was of high EI. In Experiment III, the response EI main effect and the Stimulus by Response EI interaction were also found to be significant. The results indicated that like the imagery evoked by nouns, the EI evoked by verbs facilitates learning.
Verbs differ in their capacity to arouse mental representations of activity or action. Some verbs arouse a sensory experience such as a mental image or sensation of movement, very quickly and easily, whereas others may do so with difficulty (i.e., after along delay) or not at all. The purpose of this experiment is to rate a list of verbs as to the ease or difficulty with which they arouse the sensation of movement or action.