scholarly journals Priming of object categorization within and across levels of specificity

Psihologija ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasna Martinovic ◽  
Thomas Gruber ◽  
Matthias Müller

Identification of objects can occur at different levels of specificity. Depending on task and context, an object can be classified at the superordinate level (as an animal), at the basic level (a bird) or at the subordinate level (a sparrow). What are the interactions between these representational levels and do they rely on the same sequential processes that lead to successful object identification? In this electroencephalogram study, a task-switching paradigm (covert naming or living/non-living judgment) was used. Images of objects were repeated either within the same task, or with a switch from a covert naming task to a living or non-living judgment and vice versa. While covert naming accesses entrylevel (basic or subordinate), living/non-living judgments rely on superordinate classification. Our behavioral results demonstrated clear priming effects within both tasks. However, asymmetries were found when task-switching had occurred, with facilitation for covert naming but not for categorization. We also found lower accuracy and early-starting and persistent enhancements of event-related potentials (ERPs) for covert naming, indicating that this task was more difficult and involved more intense perceptual and semantic processing. Perceptual priming was marked by consistent reductions of the ERP component L1 for repeated presentations, both with and without task switching. Additional repetition effects were found in early event-related activity between 150-190 ms (N1) when a repeated image had been named at initial presentation. We conclude that differences in N1 indicate task-related changes in the identification process itself. Such enhancements for covert naming again emerge in a later time window associated with depth of semantic processing. Meanwhile, L1 reflects modulations due to implicit memory of objects. In conclusion, evidence was found for representational overlap; changes in ERP markers started early and revealed cross-task priming at the level of object structure analysis and more intense perceptual and semantic processing for covert naming.

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Angwin ◽  
Nadeeka N.W. Dissanayaka ◽  
Alison Moorcroft ◽  
Katie L. McMahon ◽  
Peter A. Silburn ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectives: Cognitive-linguistic impairments in Parkinson’s disease (PD) have been well documented; however, few studies have explored the neurophysiological underpinnings of semantic deficits in PD. This study investigated semantic function in PD using event-related potentials. Methods: Eighteen people with PD and 18 healthy controls performed a semantic judgement task on written word pairs that were either congruent or incongruent. Results: The mean amplitude of the N400 for new incongruent word pairs was similar for both groups, however the onset latency was delayed in the PD group. Further analysis of the data revealed that both groups demonstrated attenuation of the N400 for repeated incongruent trials, as well as attenuation of the P600 component for repeated congruent trials. Conclusions: The presence of N400 congruity and N400 repetition effects in the PD group suggests that semantic processing is generally intact, but with a slower time course as evidenced by the delayed N400. Additional research will be required to determine whether N400 and P600 repetition effects are sensitive to further cognitive decline in PD. (JINS, 2017, 23, 78–89)


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
GABRIELLA VIGLIOCCO ◽  
YE ZHANG ◽  
NICOLA DEL MASCHIO ◽  
ROSANNA TODD ◽  
JYRKI TUOMAINEN

abstractOnomatopoeia is widespread across the world’s languages. They represent a relatively simple iconic mapping: the phonological/phonetic properties of the word evokes acoustic related features of referents. Here, we explore the EEG correlates of processing onomatopoeia in English. Participants were presented with a written cue-word (e.g., leash) and then with a spoken target-word. The target-word was either an onomatopoeia (e.g., bark), a sound-related but arbitrary word (e.g., melody), or another arbitrary word (e.g., bike). Participants judged whether the cue- and the target-word were similar in meaning. We analysed Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) in different time-windows: (i) early (100–200 and 200–250 ms) to assess differences in processing at the form-level; (ii) the N400 time-window (300–500 ms) in order to establish if there are differences in semantic processing across our word-types; and (iii) late (600–900 ms) to assess post-lexical effects. We found that onomatopoeia differed from the other words in the N400 time-window: when cue and target were unrelated, onomatopoeic words led to greater negativity which can be accounted for in terms of enhanced semantic activation of onomatopoeia which leads to greater salience of the mismatch. We discuss results in the context of a growing body of literature investigating iconicity in language processing and development.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Vega-Mendoza ◽  
Martin John Pickering ◽  
Mante S. Nieuwland

In two ERP experiments, we investigated whether readers prioritize animacy over real-world event-knowledge during sentence comprehension. We used the paradigm of Paczynski and Kuperberg (2012), who argued that animacy is prioritized based on the observations that the ‘related anomaly effect’ (reduced N400s for context-related anomalous words compared to unrelated words) does not occur for animacy violations, and that animacy violations but not relatedness violations elicit P600 effects. Participants read passive sentences with plausible agents (e.g., The prescription for the mental disorder was written by the psychiatrist) or implausible agents that varied in animacy and semantic relatedness (schizophrenic/guard/pill/fence). In Experiment 1 (with a plausibility judgment task), plausible sentences elicited smaller N400s relative to all types of implausible sentences. Moreover, animate words elicited smaller N400s than inanimate words, and related words elicited smaller N400s than unrelated words. Crucially, at the P600 time-window, we observed more positive ERPs for animate than inanimate words and for related than unrelated words at anterior regions. In Experiment 2 (with no judgment task), we observed an N400 effect with animacy violations, but no other effects. Taken together, the results of our experiments fail to support a prioritized role of animacy information over real-world event-knowledge, but they support an interactive, constraint-based view on incremental semantic processing.


2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haline E. Schendan ◽  
Marta Kutas

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to delineate the time course of activation of the processes and representations supporting visual object identification and memory. Following K. Srinivas (1993), 66 young people named objects in canonical or unusual views during study and an indirect memory test. Test views were the same or different from those at study. The first ERP repetition effect and earliest ERP format effect started at ∼150 msec. Multiple ERP repetition effects appeared over time. All but the latest ones were largest for same views, although other aspects of their form specificity varied. Initial ERP format effects support multiple-views-plus-transformation accounts of identification and indicate the timing of processes of object model selection (frontal N350 from 148–250 to 500–700 msec) and view transformation via mental rotation (posterior N400/P600 from 250–356 to 700 msec). Thereafter, a late slow wave reflects a memory process more strongly recruited by different than same views. Overall, the ERP data demonstrate the activation of multiple memory processes over time during an indirect test, with earlier ones (within 148–400 msec) characterized by a pattern of form specificity consistent with the specific identification-related neural process or representational system supporting each memory function.


Author(s):  
Karen Emmorey

Recent neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies reveal how the reading system successfully adapts when phonological codes are relatively coarse-grained due to reduced auditory input during development. New evidence suggests that the optimal end-state for the reading system may differ for deaf versus hearing adults and indicates that certain neural patterns that are maladaptive for hearing readers may be beneficial for deaf readers. This chapter focuses on deaf adults who are signers and have achieved reading success. Although the left-hemisphere-dominant reading circuit is largely similar in both deaf and hearing individuals, skilled deaf readers exhibit a more bilateral neural response to written words and sentences than their hearing peers, as measured by event-related potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Skilled deaf readers may also rely more on neural regions involved in semantic processing than hearing readers do. Overall, emerging evidence indicates that the neural markers for reading skill may differ for deaf and hearing adults.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (05) ◽  
pp. 1850034
Author(s):  
Yeganeh Shahsavar ◽  
Majid Ghoshuni

The main goal of this event-related potentials (ERPs) study was to assess the effects of stimulations in Stroop task in brain activities of patients with different degrees of depression. Eighteen patients (10 males, with the mean age [Formula: see text]) were asked to fill out Beck’s depression questionnaire. Electroencephalographic (EEG) signals of subjects were recorded in three channels (Pz, Cz, and Fz) during Stroop test. This test entailed 360 stimulations, which included 120 congruent, 120 incongruent, and 120 neutral stimulations. To analyze the data, 18 time features in each type of stimulus were extracted from the ERP components and the optimal features were selected. The correlation between the subjects’ scores in Beck’s depression questionnaires and the extracted time features in each recording channel was calculated in order to select the best features. Total area, and peak-to-peak time window in the Cz channel in both the congruent and incongruent stimulus showed significant correlation with Beck scores, with [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], respectively. Consequently, given the correlation between time features and the subjects’ Beck scores with different degrees of depression, it can be interpreted that in case of growth in degrees of depression, stimulations involving congruent images would produce more challenging interferences for the patients compared to incongruent stimulations which can be more effective in diagnosing the level of disorder.


2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1135-1148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annett Schirmer ◽  
Sonja A. Kotz

The present study investigated the interaction of emotional prosody and word valence during emotional comprehension in men and women. In a prosody-word interference task, participants listened to positive, neutral, and negative words that were spoken with a happy, neutral, and angry prosody. Participants were asked to rate word valence while ignoring emotional prosody, or vice versa. Congruent stimuli were responded faster and more accurately as compared to incongruent emotional stimuli. This behavioral effect was more salient for the word valence task than for the prosodic task and was comparable between men and women. The event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed a smaller N400 amplitude for congruent as compared to emotionally incongruent stimuli. This ERP effect, however, was significant only for the word valence judgment and only for female listeners. The present data suggest that the word valence judgment was more difficult and more easily influenced by task-irrelevant emotional information than the prosodic task in both men and women. Furthermore, although emotional prosody and word valence may have a similar influence on an emotional judgment in both sexes, ERPs indicate sex differences in the underlying processing. Women, but not men, show an interaction between prosody and word valence during a semantic processing stage.


2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Henkin ◽  
Liat Kishon-Rabin ◽  
Natan Gadoth ◽  
Hillel Pratt

1990 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Risto Näätänen

AbstractThis article examines the role of attention and automaticity in auditory processing as revealed by event-related potential (ERP) research. An ERP component called the mismatch negativity, generated by the brain's automatic response to changes in repetitive auditory input, reveals that physical features of auditory stimuli are fully processed whether or not they are attended. It also suggests that there exist precise neuronal representations of the physical features of recent auditory stimuli, perhaps the traces underlying acoustic sensory (“echoic”) memory. A mechanism of passive attention switching in response to changes in repetitive input is also implicated.Conscious perception of discrete acoustic stimuli might be mediated by some of the mechanisms underlying another ERP component (NI), one sensitive to stimulus onset and offset. Frequent passive attentional shifts might accountforthe effect cognitive psychologists describe as “the breakthrough of the unattended” (Broadbent 1982), that is, that even unattended stimuli may be semantically processed, without assuming automatic semantic processing or late selection in selective attention.The processing negativity supports the early-selection theory and may arise from a mechanism for selectively attending to stimuli defined by certain features. This stimulus selection occurs in the form ofa matching process in which each input is compared with the “attentional trace,” a voluntarily maintained representation of the task-relevant features of the stimulus to be attended. The attentional mechanism described might underlie the stimulus-set mode of attention proposed by Broadbent. Finally, a model of automatic and attentional processing in audition is proposed that is based mainly on the aforementioned ERP components and some other physiological measures.


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