Situated conceptualization and semantic processing: effects of emotional experience and context availability in semantic categorization and naming tasks

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 408-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Moffat ◽  
Paul D. Siakaluk ◽  
David M. Sidhu ◽  
Penny M. Pexman
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Semantic Categorization ◽  
Context Availability ◽  
Processing Effects ◽  
Naming Tasks

scholarly journals Visual word recognition: evidence for a serial bottleneck in lexical access

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex L. White ◽  
Geoffrey M. Boynton ◽  
John Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Access ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Capacity Limits ◽  
Semantic Categorization ◽  
Serial Processing ◽  
Trial Stimulus ◽  
Limited Accuracy

Reading is a demanding task, constrained by inherent processing capacity limits. Do those capacity limits allow for multiple words to be recognized in parallel? In a recent study, we measured semantic categorization accuracy for nouns presented in pairs. The words were replaced by post-masks after an interval that was set to each subject’s threshold, such that with focused attention they could categorize one word with ~80% accuracy. When subjects tried to divide attention between both words, their accuracy was so impaired that it supported a serial processing model: on each trial, subjects could categorize one word but had to guess about the other (White, Palmer & Boynton, 2018). In the experiments reported here, we investigated how our previous result generalizes across two tasks that require lexical access but vary in the depth of semantic processing (semantic categorization and lexical decision), and across different masking stimuli, word lengths, lexical frequencies and visual field positions. In all cases, the serial processing model was supported by two effects: (1) a sufficiently large accuracy deficit with divided compared to focused attention; and (2) a trial-by-trial stimulus processing tradeoff, meaning that the response to one word was more likely to be correct if the response to the other was incorrect. However, when the task was to detect colored letters, neither of those effects occurred, even though the post-masks limited accuracy in the same way. Altogether, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that visual processing of words is parallel but lexical access is serial.

Effects of emotion information on processing pain-related words in visual word recognition

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-308
Author(s):  
Jessica Duris ◽  
Tamara Kumpan ◽  
Brian Duffels ◽  
Heath E. Matheson ◽  
Penny M. Pexman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Decision Criterion ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Pain Experience ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Semantic Categorization ◽  
Mixed Effects Modeling ◽  
Valence Effect

Abstract We examined the effects of emotion information (valence, arousal, and emotional experience) on lexical decision and semantic categorization (using a “Is the word pain-related or not?” decision criterion) performance for pain-related words. Using linear mixed-effects modeling, we observed facilitatory effects of emotional experience in both tasks, such that faster responses were associated with higher emotional experience ratings. We observed a marginally significant valence effect in the semantic categorization task, such that faster responses were associated with more unpleasantness ratings. These effects were observed even with several other predictor variables (e.g., frequency, age of acquisition, concreteness, physical pain experience ratings) included in the analyses. These results suggest that the dimensions of emotional experience and (to a lesser degree) valence underlie emotion conceptual knowledge of pain-related words; however, their influence appears to be dynamic, depending on task demands.

An examination of regional cerebral blood flow during object naming tasks

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Zelkowicz ◽  
Amy N. Herbster ◽  
Robert D. Nebes ◽  
Mark A. Mintun ◽  
and James T. Becker
Keyword(s):  
Blood Flow ◽  
Cerebral Blood Flow ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Regional Cerebral Blood Flow ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Regional Cerebral Blood ◽  
Form Generation ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Confrontation Naming ◽  
Naming Tasks

The purpose of this study was to examine regional cerebral blood flow using positron emission tomography (PET) during the performance of tasks related to visual confrontation naming. Ten healthy, young participants were scanned twice in each of 5 conditions; blood flow was measured using standard PET [15O]-water technology. Two major findings have replicated previous studies. First, the naming of visually presented objects, whether covert or overt, requires a region of the left inferior cortex including the fusiform gyrus. Second, during overt naming, there is an increase in activity in the inferior or frontal cortex and insula as a consequence of generating speech code. These data are consistent with other studies demonstrating the importance of the inferior temporal regions for semantic processing, and the frontal cortex for word form generation. (JINS, 1998, 4, 160–166.)

scholarly journals Masked Priming Effects in Semantic Categorization Are Independent of Category Size

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Van den Bussche ◽  
Bert Reynvoet
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Category Size ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Semantic Categorization ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Response Congruency

Abstract. The question whether subliminal primes can activate their semantic meaning or not is still of interest today. Three different competing theories have tried to account for the often inconsistent research results: The semantic categorization hypothesis, the direct motor specification hypothesis, and the category search model. The present study aimed to shed light on these different points of view by examining the role of category size in response congruency effects when novel primes are used. Three experiments were conducted and a transparent pattern of results emerged: Significant priming effects were obtained across different tasks, irrespective of category size and irrespective of stimulus set size. The findings are discussed in terms of the three theoretical frameworks. It becomes clear that the present results provide strong evidence in favor of the semantic categorization hypothesis, which assumes semantic processing of subliminal primes.

scholarly journals Getting a Grip on Sensorimotor Effects in Lexical-Semantic Processing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Heard ◽  
Christopher R Madan ◽  
Andrea Protzner ◽  
Penny M. Pexman
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Semantic Categorization ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Object Interaction ◽  
Sensorimotor Information ◽  
Theoretical Import

One of the strategies that researchers have used to investigate the role of sensorimotor information in lexical-semantic processing is to examine effects of words’ rated body-object interaction (BOI; the ease with which the human body can interact with a word’s referent). Processing tends to be facilitated for words with high BOI compared to words with low BOI, across a wide variety of tasks. Such effects have been referenced in debates over the nature of semantic representations, but their theoretical import has been limited by the fact that BOI is a fairly coarse measure of sensorimotor experience with words’ referents. In the present study we collected ratings for 621 words on seven semantic dimensions (graspability, ease of pantomime, number of actions, animacy, size, danger, and usefulness) in order to investigate which attributes are most strongly related to BOI ratings, and to lexical-semantic processing. BOI ratings were obtained from previous norming studies (Bennett, Burnett, Siakaluk, & Pexman, 2011; Tillotson, Siakaluk, & Pexman, 2008) and measures of lexical-semantic processing were obtained from previous behavioural megastudies involving the semantic categorization task (concrete/abstract decision; Pexman, Heard, Lloyd, & Yap, 2017) and the lexical decision task (Balota et al., 2007). Results showed that the motor dimension of graspability, ease of pantomime, and number of actions were all related to BOI and that these dimensions together explained more variance in semantic processing than did BOI ratings alone. These ratings will be useful for researchers who wish to study how different kinds of bodily interactions influence lexical-semantic processing and cognition.

Bilingual sentence processing

2007 ◽  
pp. 370-384
Author(s):  
Arturo E. Hernández ◽  
Eva M. Fernández ◽  
Noemí Aznar-besé
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Processing Effects

Bilinguals live in two linguistic worlds. Given the different demands of each language, one might think that each system functions independently. However, bilinguals do not behave like two monolingual speaker/listeners housed in a single brain. Instead, the evidence to date suggests that the characteristics of bilingual language processing may appear to be “in between” the individual's two codes. Studies in bilingual sentence processing have focused on phenomena related to how semantic or syntactic representations are built. This article reviews data consistent with the view of interdependence between the two languages of the bilingual, using evidence from the literature on bilingual sentence processing. Studies of both semantic processing and syntactic processing show that bilinguals almost always use a unitary mechanism which accesses two separately represented grammars. The study of bilingual sentence processing can also offer insights into our understanding of human language processing in general, because bilinguals offer opportunities to examine sentence processing effects in within-participant designs, impossible to carry out with monolinguals. In addition to the above, this article explores parsing, the age of language acquisition, and language proficiency.

Neural Correlates of Concreteness in Semantic Categorization

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1407-1419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penny M. Pexman ◽  
Ian S. Hargreaves ◽  
Jodi D. Edwards ◽  
Luke C. Henry ◽  
Bradley G. Goodyear
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Dual Coding ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Symbol Systems ◽  
Semantic Categorization ◽  
Context Availability ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
Perceptual Symbol Systems

In some contexts, concrete words (CARROT) are recognized and remembered more readily than abstract words (TRUTH). This concreteness effect has historically been explained by two theories of semantic representation: dual-coding [Paivio, A. Dual coding theory: Retrospect and current status. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 45, 255–287, 1991] and context-availability [Schwanenflugel, P. J. Why are abstract concepts hard to understand? In P. J. Schwanenflugel (Ed.), The psychology of word meanings (pp. 223–250). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1991]. Past efforts to adjudicate between these theories using functional magnetic resonance imaging have produced mixed results. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we reexamined this issue with a semantic categorization task that allowed for uniform semantic judgments of concrete and abstract words. The participants were 20 healthy adults. Functional analyses contrasted activation associated with concrete and abstract meanings of ambiguous and unambiguous words. Results showed that for both ambiguous and unambiguous words, abstract meanings were associated with more widespread cortical activation than concrete meanings in numerous regions associated with semantic processing, including temporal, parietal, and frontal cortices. These results are inconsistent with both dual-coding and context-availability theories, as these theories propose that the representations of abstract concepts are relatively impoverished. Our results suggest, instead, that semantic retrieval of abstract concepts involves a network of association areas. We argue that this finding is compatible with a theory of semantic representation such as Barsalou's [Barsalou, L. W. Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 22, 577–660, 1999] perceptual symbol systems, whereby concrete and abstract concepts are represented by similar mechanisms but with differences in focal content.

Levels of Processing Effects on the Immediate and Delayed Recall of Prose

1981 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Burton ◽  
Jerry A. Niles ◽  
Terry M. Wildman
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Memory Trace ◽  
The Other ◽  
Processing Conditions ◽  
Processing Quality ◽  
Levels Of Processing ◽  
Delayed Recall ◽  
Connected Discourse ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
Processing Effects

Levels of processing is an explanatory framework which postulates that differences in memorial processing quality and/or effort affect the duration of the memory trace. Using recall (immediate, one week, two week) for connected discourse processed under three semantic and three orthographic interference conditions as well as a “normal” control, hypotheses of superior delayed recall for semantic processing conditions and “reversals” from immediate to delayed recall were tested. Results were consistent with a semantic elaboration notion, but the reversals suggested by the other studies (e. g., Pellegrino, Siegel & Dhawan) were not found to be statistically reliable. Alternative hypotheses are considered.

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