scholarly journals Continuous neural activations of embodied-linguistic representations in modality switching costs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei Q Liu ◽  
Louise Connell ◽  
Dermot Lynott
Keyword(s):  
Switching Costs ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Distributional Pattern ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Sensory Property ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Linguistic Model ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Perceptual Modalities ◽  
Modality Switching

Modality switching costs (MSCs) are one of the classic effects that support the embodied views of conceptual representations. They refer to a delay in response time to verify a sensory property of a certain perceptual modality (e.g., visual: SUN – bright), when the previous sensory property has been of a different modality (e.g., auditory: BLENDER – loud) compared to a property of the same modality (e.g., visual: ROSE – red). Such costs indicate that conceptual representations require the recruitment of modality-specific resources. However, MSCs could also result from the distributional pattern of property words: the reason why loud -> bright takes longer than red -> bright could be because bright and loud do not co-occur in the same linguistic context as frequently as bright and red. In the present study, we examined how well MSCs were predicted by an embodied model (switch / no-switch between perceptual modalities) versus a linguistic model (switch / no-switch between linguistic distributional clusters), in behavioural (RT) and continuous event-related EEG potentials (ERP) paradigms. The behavioural data supported the linguistic model in explaining MSCs and found MSCs to be moderated by the target modality, the ERPs showed that linguistic distributional pattern played a crucial role in the neural activations of MSCs. What used to be found as a result of perceptual switching (e.g., "early N400" effect) could be better explained by the linguistic model. The embodied component was activated later than the linguistic component, accounting for activations associated with semantic representation (typically in N400 area). Later during processing, both components were active for decision making (often manifested as LPC).

The modality switching costs of Chinese–English bilinguals in the processing of L1 and L2

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 396-412
Author(s):  
Tianyang Zhao ◽  
Yanli Huang ◽  
Donggui Chen ◽  
Lu Jiao ◽  
Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Switching Costs ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Auditory Modality ◽  
Sequential Information ◽  
Modality Switching ◽  
L1 And L2

Modality switching cost indicates that people’s performance becomes worse when they judge sequential information that is related to different sensory modalities than judging information that is related to the same modality. In this study, we conducted three experiments on proficient and non-proficient bilingual individuals to investigate the modality switching costs in L1 and L2 processing separately. In Experiment 1, materials were L1 and L2 words that were either conceptually related to a visual modality (e.g., light) or related to an auditory modality (e.g., song). The modality switching costs were investigated in a lexical decision task in both L1 and L2. Experiment 2 further explored the modality switching costs while weakening the activation level of the perceptual modality by adding a set of fillers. Experiment 3 used a word-naming task to explore the modality switching effect in language production in L1 and L2. Results of these experiments showed that the modality switching costs appeared in both language comprehension and production in L1 and L2 conditions. The magnitude of the modality switching costs was conditionally modulated by the L2 proficiency level, such as in the L2 condition in Experiment 1 and in both L1 and L2 conditions in Experiment 3. These results suggest that sensorimotor simulation is involved in not only language comprehension but also language production. The sensorimotor simulation that is acquired in L1 can be transferred to L2.

Investigating task and modality switching costs using bimodal stimuli

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Raj Sandhu ◽  
Ben Dyson
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Switching Costs ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Task Repetition ◽  
Specific Combination ◽  
Task Change ◽  
Modality Switching ◽  
And Task

Investigations of concurrent task and modality switching effects have to date been studied under conditions of uni-modal stimulus presentation. As such, it is difficult to directly compare resultant task and modality switching effects, as the stimuli afford both tasks on each trial, but only one modality. The current study investigated task and modality switching using bi-modal stimulus presentation under various cue conditions: task and modality (double cue), either task or modality (single cue) or no cue. Participants responded to either the identity or the position of an audio–visual stimulus. Switching effects were defined as staying within a modality/task (repetition) or switching into a modality/task (change) from trial n − 1 to trial n, with analysis performed on trial n data. While task and modality switching costs were sub-additive across all conditions replicating previous data, modality switching effects were dependent on the modality being attended, and task switching effects were dependent on the task being performed. Specifically, visual responding and position responding revealed significant costs associated with modality and task switching, while auditory responding and identity responding revealed significant gains associated with modality and task switching. The effects interacted further, revealing that costs and gains associated with task and modality switching varying with the specific combination of modality and task type. The current study reconciles previous data by suggesting that efficiently processed modality/task information benefits from repetition while less efficiently processed information benefits from change due to less interference of preferred processing across consecutive trials.

scholarly journals Complex dynamics of semantic memory access in reading

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (67) ◽  
pp. 328-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giosué Baggio ◽  
André Fonseca
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Discourse Model ◽  
Lower Entropy ◽  
Critical Words

Understanding a word in context relies on a cascade of perceptual and conceptual processes, starting with modality-specific input decoding, and leading to the unification of the word's meaning into a discourse model. One critical cognitive event, turning a sensory stimulus into a meaningful linguistic sign, is the access of a semantic representation from memory. Little is known about the changes that activating a word's meaning brings about in cortical dynamics. We recorded the electroencephalogram (EEG) while participants read sentences that could contain a contextually unexpected word, such as ‘cold’ in ‘In July it is very cold outside’. We reconstructed trajectories in phase space from single-trial EEG time series, and we applied three nonlinear measures of predictability and complexity to each side of the semantic access boundary, estimated as the onset time of the N400 effect evoked by critical words. Relative to controls, unexpected words were associated with larger prediction errors preceding the onset of the N400. Accessing the meaning of such words produced a phase transition to lower entropy states, in which cortical processing becomes more predictable and more regular. Our study sheds new light on the dynamics of information flow through interfaces between sensory and memory systems during language processing.

Relations Between Language and Thought

2020 ◽  
pp. 843-878
Author(s):  
Lila R. Gleitman ◽  
Anna Papafragou
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Orientation ◽  
Conceptual Representation ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Space Motion ◽  
Processing Effects

In this chapter we consider the question of whether the language one speaks affects one’s thinking. We discuss arguments showing that language cannot be taken to be the vehicle of thought. We then review evidence from several domains in which language has been proposed to reorganize conceptual representations, including color, objects and substances, space, motion, number, and spatial orientation. We conclude that linguistic representations have significant online processing effects in these and other cognitive and perceptual domains but do not alter conceptual representation.

scholarly journals Coercion and Compositionality

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 2131-2140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giosuè Baggio ◽  
Travis Choma ◽  
Michiel van Lambalgen ◽  
Peter Hagoort
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Semantic Element

Research in psycholinguistics and in the cognitive neuroscience of language has suggested that semantic and syntactic processing are associated with different neurophysiologic correlates, such as the N400 and the P600 in the ERPs. However, only a handful of studies have investigated the neural basis of the syntax–semantics interface, and even fewer experiments have dealt with the cases in which semantic composition can proceed independently of the syntax. Here we looked into one such case—complement coercion—using ERPs. We compared sentences such as, “The journalist wrote the article” with “The journalist began the article.” The second sentence seems to involve a silent semantic element, which is expressed in the first sentence by the head of the verb phrase (VP) “wrote the article.” The second type of construction may therefore require the reader to infer or recover from memory a richer event sense of the VP “began the article,” such as began writing the article, and to integrate that into a semantic representation of the sentence. This operation is referred to as “complement coercion.” Consistently with earlier reading time, eye tracking, and MEG studies, we found traces of such additional computations in the ERPs: Coercion gives rise to a long-lasting negative shift, which differs at least in duration from a standard N400 effect. Issues regarding the nature of the computation involved are discussed in the light of a neurocognitive model of language processing and a formal semantic analysis of coercion.

Modality Switching Costs Emerge in Concept Creation as Well as Retrieval

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Connell ◽  
Dermot Lynott
Keyword(s):  
Switching Costs ◽  
Modality Switching

scholarly journals Continuous neural activations of simulation and linguistic information during metaphor processing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei Q Liu ◽  
Louise Connell ◽  
Dermot Lynott
Keyword(s):  
Success Rate ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Distributional Pattern ◽  
Linguistic Information ◽  
Embodied Simulation ◽  
Metaphor Comprehension ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Behavioural Study ◽  
Occurrence Pattern ◽  
Metaphor Processing

Language processing relies on conceptual representations which are composed of two crucial components, embodied simulation and linguistic distributional pattern. The embodied component refers to the reactivation of previous sensorimotor experiences related to the concept (e.g., experiences with a clever student when reading "bright student"); the linguistic component refers to the co-occurrence pattern of the constituent words (i.e., how often "bright" and "student" appear in the same context). In this study, we examined the existence and roles of these components in metaphor processing. Using both a behavioural study and EEG, we studied how these components affected the speed, success rate and neurophysiological activations of metaphor comprehension. We found that, while performance of metaphor comprehension was mainly influenced by the embodied component, the linguistic component was activated before the embodied component reached its peak and could act as a shortcut to construct good-enough representations, such that people found it easier to accept and hard to reject a metaphor when the distributional frequency of constituent words was high. In other words, the linguistic distributional pattern could provide a guide for conceptual representations before the embodied component was fully engaged.

Reduction in Switching Costs for Difficult Tasks With Task Priming

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padmanabhan Sudevan ◽  
John Holmes ◽  
Amber Corry ◽  
Jeffrey Willems ◽  
Marisa Hoffman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Switching Costs
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