Lexical-semantic body knowledge in 5- to 11-year-old children: How spatial body representation influences body semantics Laurent Auclair 1,2 and Isabelle Jambaqué 1,2 1 Institut de Psychologie, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France 2 Inserm U1129, Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France This study addresses the relation between lexico-semantic body knowledge (i.e., body semantics) and spatial body representation (i.e., structural body representation) by analyzing naming performances as a function of body structural topography. One hundred and forty-one children ranging from 5 years 2 months to 10 years 5 months old were asked to provide a lexical label for isolated body part pictures. We compared the children’s naming performances according to the location of the body parts (body parts vs. head features and also upper vs. lower limbs) or to their involvement in motor skills (distal segments, joints, and broader body parts). The results showed that the children’s naming performance was better for facial body parts than for other body parts. Furthermore, it was found that the naming of body parts was better for body parts related to action. These findings suggest that the development of a spatial body representation shapes the elaboration of semantic body representation processing. Moreover, this influence was not limited to younger children. In our discussion of these results, we focus on the important role of action in the development of body representations and semantic organization. Keywords: Body representation; Semantic knowledge; Body schema; Action; Embodiment. The human body is a unique object in the world. In contrast to other visual objects, the body affords dual access: It can be perceived both with reference to first-person experi- ence (i.e., how we perceive our body) via somatosensory processing, and it is also a physical object in the external world that can be observed from the outside as a biological object from a cognitive body representation. Moreover, the body is a rich source of emotionally relevant information about other individuals and it plays a central role in the development of social abilities. We are grateful to the children for their participation to this research. Special thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Rollet-Jolivet for English editing. Address correspondence to Dr. Laurent Auclair, Université Paris Descartes, Institut de Psychologie, Inserm UMR663, 71 Avenue Edouard Vaillant, F-92100 Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. E-mail: laurent. auclair@parisdescartes.fr Child Neuropsychology, 2015 Vol. 21, No. 4, 451–464, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2014.912623 © 2014 Taylor & Francis