cover image Louder Than Words: 
The New Science of How 
the Mind Makes Meaning

Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning

Benjamin K. Bergen. Basic, $26.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-465-02829-0

This is a breezy exploration of a theory of meaning, positing that we understand language by simulating in our minds the experiences that are being described to us. This theory of “embodied simulation” is both systematic and speculative in its approach. Bergen, director of the Language and Cognition Lab at UC–San Diego, focuses primarily on two types of studies from the last decade. Studies that compare fMRI imaging during visual, motor, and linguistic tasks reveal similar brain activity when subjects perceive objects as when they imagine them; similar results are found in comparing subjects’ mental rehearsal of motor activity, such as bowling a strike, and their understanding of language about that activity. Studies give hints of what the internal representation of the verbal cue (e.g., “The Ranger saw the eagle in the nest”) looks like. Bergen’s clarity in specifying where his ideas are supported by current research and where they are still unproven flights of fancy, his coverage of many studies with small variations between them, and his pointers toward the next directions for research make this book a good resource for students interested in the design and analysis of experiments, especially those with human subjects. Illus. Agent: Katinka Matson, Brockman Inc. (Oct.)