Abstract

Previous studies suggest a relationship between prolonged pacifier use (beyond three years of age) and linguistic processing later in life, slowing the processing of abstract words in school-age children. Here, we tested whether prolonged pacifier use interferes with sentence processing. Italian-speaking children with a different history of pacifier use (as measured by a parental questionnaire) performed an online task categorizing abstract, concrete, and metaphorical sentences auditorially presented. Abstract sentences tended to be categorized more slowly with increasing months of pacifier use; whereas a facilitation effect was observed for metaphorical sentences. The results are compatible with greater involvement of the linguistic-motor system in the processing of abstract concepts.