12. Language-specific effects on lexicalisation and memory of motion events

We studied language as a factor in the construal of dynamic spatial relations, and addressed the question of whether different languages can have different effects on memory of motion events. In the “motion condition”, speakers had to describe what the person did in each video, while in the “colour condition”, speakers had to describe only the colours they noticed in the clips. English speakers showed better recognition of the motion event when asked to describe them directly (compared with the colour condition), and Spanish speakers performed equally on both conditions, with their performance being similar to the English speaker’s performance on the colour condition. We discuss the implications of these results for language processing and for memory of events.