In a response time experiment dealing with action language
comprehension, we investigated the question of whether the
execution of a hand-response would interfere with or facilitate
hand-related action sentence processing. We analyzed response
times on concrete action, abstract action, and abstract
control stimuli, given by hand or with the foot respectively.
Beside the well-known concreteness effect, we found that responses
by hand on concrete action sentences were relatively
prolonged in relation to responses with the foot. Thus, there is
a decisive interdependency between the effector-reference of
the action verb and the effector used for response detection.
We suggest that this has to be taken into account when analyzing
action language comprehension and that response
effectors should be chosen in accordance with the action language
stimuli used.