Consistency measures individuate dissociating semantic modulations in priming paradigms: A new look on semantics in the processing of (complex) words

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (10) ◽  
pp. 1546-1563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Amenta ◽  
Davide Crepaldi ◽  
Marco Marelli
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Semantic Priming Effect ◽  
Crucial Information ◽  
Consistency Measure ◽  
Analyse Data ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Onset Asynchrony ◽  
The Impact

In human language the mapping between form and meaning is arbitrary, as there is no direct connection between words and the objects that they represent. However, within a given language, it is possible to recognise systematic associations that support productivity and comprehension. In this work, we focus on the consistency between orthographic forms and meaning, and we investigate how the cognitive system may exploit it to process words. We take morphology as our case study, since it arguably represents one of the most notable examples of systematicity in form–meaning mapping. In a series of three experiments, we investigate the impact of form–meaning mapping in word processing by testing new consistency metrics as predictors of priming magnitude in primed lexical decision. In Experiment 1, we re-analyse data from five masked morphological priming studies and show that orthography–semantics–consistency explains independent variance in priming magnitude, suggesting that word semantics is accessed already at early stages of word processing and that crucially semantic access is constrained by word orthography. In Experiments 2 and 3, we investigate whether this pattern is replicated when looking at semantic priming. In Experiment 2, we show that orthography–semantics–consistency is not a viable predictor of priming magnitude with longer stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). However, in Experiment 3, we develop a new semantic consistency measure based on the semantic density of target neighbourhoods. This measure is shown to significantly predict independent variance in semantic priming effect. Overall, our results indicate that consistency measures provide crucial information for the understanding of word processing. Specifically, the dissociation between measures and priming paradigms shows that different priming conditions are associated with the activation of different semantic cohorts.

scholarly journals Semantic Priming Effects in a Lexical Decision Task: Comparing third Graders and College Students in two Different Stimulus Onset Asynchronies

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 589-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Steffen Holderbaum ◽  
Jerusa Fumagalli de Salles
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Third Graders ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Adult Performance ◽  
Semantic Priming Effect ◽  
Onset Asynchrony

Differences in the semantic priming effect comparing child and adult performance have been found by some studies. However, these differences are not well established, mostly because of the variety of methods used by researchers around the world. One of the main issues concerns the absence of semantic priming effects on children at stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) smaller than 300ms. The aim of this study was to compare the semantic priming effect between third graders and college students at two different SOAs: 250ms and 500ms. Participants performed lexical decisions to targets which were preceded by semantic related or unrelated primes. Semantic priming effects were found at both SOAs in the third graders' group and in college students. Despite the fact that there was no difference between groups in the magnitude of semantic priming effects when SOA was 250ms, at the 500ms SOA their magnitude was bigger in children, corroborating previous studies. Hypotheses which could explain the presence of semantic priming effects in children's performance when SOA was 250ms are discussed, as well as hypotheses for the larger magnitude of semantic priming effects in children when SOA was 500ms.

scholarly journals Development of Memory Structures for Homographs Using Pathfinder Network Representations

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Nievas ◽  
Fernando Justicia
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Cohort Effect ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Developmental Differences ◽  
Memory Structure ◽  
Short Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Semantic Priming Effect ◽  
Short Stimulus ◽  
Pathfinder Network ◽  
Memory Structures

Some studies with children have shown that there is no semantic priming at short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) in lexical decision and naming tasks for homographs. The predictions of spreading activation theories might explain this missing effect. There may be differences in children's and adults' memory structures. We have explored this hypothesis. The development of memory structure representations for homographs was measured by a Pathfinder algorithm. In Experiment 1, the three dependent variables were: the number of links in the network, closeness measures (C), and distances between nodes. Results revealed developmental differences in network structure representations in adults and children. In Experiment 2, results revealed that these differences were not due to the cohort effect. In Experiment 3, the relationship between associative strength, as measured by associative norms, and distances, as measured by Pathfinder algorithm, was explored. The results of these three experiments and empirical research from semantic priming experiments show that these differences in memory structure representations could be one of the sources of the missing semantic priming effect in children.

Audiovisual Integration Delayed by Stimulus Onset Asynchrony Between Auditory and Visual Stimuli in Older Adults

Perception ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanna Ren ◽  
Weiping Yang ◽  
Kohei Nakahashi ◽  
Satoshi Takahashi ◽  
Jinglong Wu
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Audiovisual Integration ◽  
Peak Latency ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Temporal Factors ◽  
Onset Asynchrony ◽  
The Impact

Although neuronal studies have shown that audiovisual integration is regulated by temporal factors, there is still little knowledge about the impact of temporal factors on audiovisual integration in older adults. To clarify how stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between auditory and visual stimuli modulates age-related audiovisual integration, 20 younger adults (21–24 years) and 20 older adults (61–80 years) were instructed to perform an auditory or visual stimuli discrimination experiment. The results showed that in younger adults, audiovisual integration was altered from an enhancement (AV, A ± 50 V) to a depression (A ± 150 V). In older adults, the alterative pattern was similar to that for younger adults with the expansion of SOA; however, older adults showed significantly delayed onset for the time-window-of-integration and peak latency in all conditions, which further demonstrated that audiovisual integration was delayed more severely with the expansion of SOA, especially in the peak latency for V-preceded-A conditions in older adults. Our study suggested that audiovisual facilitative integration occurs only within a certain SOA range (e.g., −50 to 50 ms) in both younger and older adults. Moreover, our results confirm that the response for older adults was slowed and provided empirical evidence that integration ability is much more sensitive to the temporal alignment of audiovisual stimuli in older adults.

scholarly journals Semantic Priming in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Healthy Subjects: Effect of Different Time of Presentation of Word-Pairs

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Guglielmi ◽  
Davide Quaranta ◽  
Ilaria Mega ◽  
Emanuele Maria Costantini ◽  
Claudia Carrarini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Factorial Anova ◽  
Semantic Priming Effect ◽  
Time Of Presentation

Introduction: Semantic memory is impaired in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Two main hypotheses about this finding are debated and refer to the degradation of stored knowledge versus the impairment of semantic access mechanisms. The aim of our study is to evaluate semantic impairment in MCI versus healthy subjects (HS) by an experiment evaluating semantic priming. Methods: We enrolled 27 MCI and 20 HS. MCI group were divided, according to follow up, into converters-MCI and non converters-MCI. The semantic task consisted of 108 pairs of words, 54 of which were semantically associated. Stimuli were presented 250 or 900 ms later the appearance of the target in a randomized manner. Data were analyzed using factorial ANOVA. Results: Both HS and MCI answered more quickly for word than for non-word at both stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) intervals. At 250 ms, both MCI and HS experienced a shorter time of response for related-word than for unrelated words (priming effect), while only the converters-MCI subgroup lost the priming effect. Further, we observed a rather larger Cohen’s d effect size in non converters-MCI than in converters-MCI. Conclusion: Our data, and in particular the absence of a semantic priming effect in converters-MCI, could reflect the impairment of semantic knowledge rather than the accessibility of semantic stores in MCI individuals that progress to dementia.

scholarly journals Heterogeneity in semantic priming effect with a lexical decision task in patients after left hemisphere stroke

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-97
Author(s):  
Candice Steffen Holderbaum ◽  
Letícia Lessa Mansur ◽  
Jerusa Fumagalli de Salles
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Semantic Priming Effect ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Left Hemisphere Stroke

ABSTRACT Investigations on the semantic priming effect (SPE) in patients after left hemisphere (LH) lesions have shown disparities that may be explained by the variability in performance found among patients. The aim of the present study was to verify the existence of subgroups of patients after LH stroke by searching for dissociations between performance on the lexical decision task based on the semantic priming paradigm and performance on direct memory, semantic association and language tasks. All 17 patients with LH lesions after stroke (ten non-fluent aphasics and seven non aphasics) were analyzed individually. Results indicated the presence of three groups of patients according to SPE: one exhibiting SPE at both stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), one with SPE only at long SOA, and another, larger group with no SPE.

scholarly journals The Magnitude of the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion does not Increase as a Function of Visual Stimulus Eccentricity in Peripheral Vision

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Gavin ◽  
David McGovern ◽  
Rebecca Hirst
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Peripheral Vision ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Temporal Binding ◽  
Temporal Binding Window ◽  
Audiovisual Stimuli ◽  
Illusory Percept ◽  
Onset Asynchrony ◽  
The Impact

The sound-induced flash illusion occurs when a rapidly presented visual stimulus is accompanied by two auditory stimuli, creating the illusory percept of two visual stimuli. While much research has focused on how the temporal proximity of the audiovisual stimuli impacts susceptibility to the illusion, comparatively less research has been dedicated to investigating the impact of spatial manipulations. Here, we aimed to assess whether manipulating the eccentricity of visual flash stimuli altered the properties of the temporal binding window associated with the SIFI. Twenty participants were required to report whether they perceived one or two flashes that were concurrently presented with one or two beeps. Visual stimuli were presented at one of four different retinal eccentricities (2.5, 5, 7.5 or 10 degrees below fixation) and audiovisual stimuli were separated by one of eight stimulus-onset asynchronies. In keeping with previous findings, increasing stimulus-onset asynchrony between the auditory and visual stimuli led to a marked decrease in susceptibility to the illusion allowing us to estimate the width and amplitude of the temporal binding window. However, varying the eccentricity of the visual stimulus had no effect on either the width or the peak amplitude of the temporal binding window, with a similar pattern of results observed for both the “fission” and “fusion” variants of the illusion. Thus, spatial manipulations of the audiovisual stimuli used to elicit the SIFI appear to have a weaker effect on the integration of sensory signals than temporal manipulations, a finding which has implications for neuroanatomical models of multisensory integration.

scholarly journals Neural dynamics of the impact of font style on lexical decision making in adult dyslexia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léon Franzen ◽  
Marios G. Philiastides
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Good Reading ◽  
The Impact

Good reading comprehension is indispensable in many situations including contract-based transactions that have become so prevalent in our everyday lives. People with dyslexia often exhibit impairments in this important cognitive process. Although the effects of italics — a commonly used style for highlighting important content in a range of documents — and font in general, have been explored with behavioural measures, their impact on human brain dynamics remains poorly understood. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the specific effects of italics in a sentence reading lexical decision task in adult dyslexics and an age-matched non-dyslexia group. Overall, the performance of dyslexics was worse. Cluster-based event-related potential (ERP) analysis revealed that brain responses within the first 300 ms following the decision stimulus differed in amplitude and spatial distribution between dyslexics and non-dyslexics when processing italicised text. An initial ERP component over occipitotemporal electrode sites started to differ between the groups as early as 167 ms following the onset of short italicised decision words. A subsequent ERP component over centrofrontal electrodes showed differences lasting until about 300 ms post-stimulus onset. Inter-individual amplitude differences in this centrofrontal neural signal were predictive of behavioural performance across participants, further highlighting the role of fast post-sensory linguistic processes in lexical decision making. Crucially, our findings emphasise the importance of choosing font style carefully to optimise word processing and reading comprehension by everyone.

‘Hyper-priming’ in thought-disordered schizophrenic patients

2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. MORITZ ◽  
K. MERSMANN ◽  
M. KLOSS ◽  
D. JACOBSEN ◽  
U. WILKE ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Formal Thought Disorder ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Positive Thought

Background. A number of studies have suggested that indirect semantic priming is enhanced in thought-disordered schizophrenics. However, research on direct semantic priming has produced conflicting results. The aim of the present study was to resolve some of the ambiguities of previous findings.Methods. For the present study, 44 schizophrenic patients were split according to the presence of associative loosening into a positive thought-disordered (TD) and non-positive thought-disordered (NTD) group. Thirty healthy subjects and 36 psychiatric patients served as controls.Results. Schizophrenics displayed increased indirect semantic priming compared with psychiatric controls. When subtyping the sample, TD-patients exhibited significantly enhanced indirect semantic priming compared with healthy and psychiatric controls as well as NTD-patients. Overall slowing was found to be independent of priming effects. Medication, age and chronicity of the schizophrenic illness did not modulate priming.Conclusions. In line with Spitzer and Maher it is inferred that disinhibited semantic networks underlie formal thought disorder in schizophrenia. For future research, it would be appropriate to: employ indirect semantic priming rather than direct semantic priming conditions; and, pay more attention to potential moderators of the priming effect, most importantly, the prime display duration and the length of the stimulus onset asynchrony.

scholarly journals Semantic priming in schizophrenia: Systematic review and meta-analysis

2008 ◽  
Vol 192 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Pomarol-Clotet ◽  
T. M. S. S. Oh ◽  
K. R. Laws ◽  
P. J. McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Thought Disorder ◽  
General Slowing ◽  
Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Influential Theory ◽  
Normal Controls

BackgroundIncreased semantic priming is an influential theory of thought disorder in schizophrenia. However, studies to date have had conflicting findings.AimsTo investigate semantic memory in patients with schizophrenia with and without thought disorder.MethodData were pooled from 36 studies comparing patients with schizophrenia and normal controls in semantic priming tasks. Data from 18 studies comparing patients with thought disorder with normal controls, and 13 studies comparing patients with and without thought disorder were also pooled.ResultsThere was no support for altered semantic priming in schizophrenia as a whole. Increased semantic priming in patients with thought disorder was supported, but this was significant only in comparison with normal controls and not in comparison with patients without thought disorder. Stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and general slowing of reaction time moderated the effect size for priming in patients with thought disorder.ConclusionsMeta-analysis provides qualified support for increased semantic priming as a psychological abnormality underlying thought disorder. However, the possibility that the effect is an artefact of general slowing of reaction time in schizophrenia has not been excluded.

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