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In a response time experiment dealing with action languagecomprehension, we investigated the question of whether theexecution of a hand-response would interfere with or facilitatehand-related action sentence processing. We analyzed responsetimes on concrete action, abstract action, and abstractcontrol stimuli, given by hand or with the foot respectively.Beside the well-known concreteness effect, we found that responsesby hand on concrete action sentences were relativelyprolonged in relation to responses with the foot. Thus, there isa decisive interdependency between the effector-reference ofthe action verb and the effector used for response detection.We suggest that this has to be taken into account when analyzingaction language comprehension and that responseeffectors should be chosen in accordance with the action languagestimuli used.

(1) Reaction time (RT) studies give only a partial picture of language processing, hence it may be risky to use the output of the computational model to inspire neurophysiological investigations instead of seeking further neurophysiological data to adjust the RT based theory. (2) There is neurophysiological evidence for differences in the cortical representation of different word categories; this could be integrated into a future version of the Levelt model. (3) EEG/MEG coherence analysis allows the monitoring of synchronous electrical activity in large groups of neurons in the cortex; this is especially interesting for activation based network models.

People should not equate the oversupply in university engineering graduates with an oversupply in engineers. Views which confuse both concepts show a lack of awareness of society's needs in the context of sustainable development. For future civil engineers to become truly prepared for assuming positions of leadership in society, the educational process should be improved and broadened.