The Link Between Action Verb Processing and Action Observation: A Developmental Study.

In this work we aimed to assess the typical link in human development between action observation and language. For this, we studied, in 68 children aged 5-11 years of age, how action verbs can prime action representation. While children 7-8 years of age benefited from a congruent action verb prime when they had to judge an image representing an action, this effect was not present in 5-6-year-olds. Thus, the link between language and action observation changes during development at about age 7. We discussed these findings in consideration of current theories proposed to account for the action-language link.