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PubMed2006

Examining the word identification stages hypothesized by the E-Z Reader model.

A critical prediction of the E-Z Reader model is that experimental manipulations that disrupt early encoding of visual and orthographic features of the fixated word without affecting subsequent lexical processing should influence the processing difficulty of the fixated word without affecting the processing of the next word. We tested this prediction by monitoring participants' eye movements while they read sentences in which a target word was presented either normally or altered. In the critical condition, the contrast between the target word and the background was substantially reduced. Such a reduction in stimulus quality is typically assumed to have an impact that is largely confined to a very early stage of word recognition. Results were consistent with the E-Z Reader model: This faint presentation had a robust influence on the duration of fixations on the target word without substantially altering the processing of the next word.

Eye Movements↗

PubMed2004

Implicit word activation during pre-recognition processing influences correct recognition and estimates of presentation frequency.

False recognition of new test words is higher for experimental lures (e.g., universal) with initial phonemes identical to studied words (e.g., university) than for control lures. A proposed mechanism to explain this phenomenon involves implicit activation of potential solution words during the brief period of uncertainty immediately following onset of a spoken study word. Two experiments examined whether the presumed pre-recognition processing during the stimulus discovery phase of spoken word identification increased familiarity of a studied word, thereby increasing correct recognitions and estimates of presentation frequency. Critical test words were presented a single time during study in Experiment 1, and their phonologically related words were presented one, two, or three times. Correct recognition and frequency estimates of targets were enhanced by multiple presentations of associates sharing initial phonemes. Experiment 2 provided a replication with five repetitions of phonological associates during study and two study presentations of critical test words. The results of these two experiments confirmed a necessary theoretical consequence of the implicit activation mechanism that has been invoked to explain the effects of phonological similarity on false recognition.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Time course analysis of the reverse-Stroop effect in Japanese Kanji.

A reverse of the Stroop effect was obtained with Japanese kanji (logographic script) but not with Japanese kana (syllabic scripts) by Morikawa in 1981. In the present study, the normal effect on reaction times by word and color was altered by presenting the words before or after the color. The reverse Stroop effect was observed with kanji but not with kana even when the color was presented prior to the word. It was shown that the difference between kanji and kana in the reverse-Stroop effect could not be explained by the relative speed of processing of word and color and that the reading process of kanji is different from that of kana.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Age-of-acquisition and frequency effects in speeded word naming.

An experiment was conducted to assess the importance of age-of-acquisition and frequency in a speeded word naming task, where participants were instructed to read aloud words before they disappeared from the computer screen. Under such speeded naming instructions, reading latencies were over 100ms (or 20%) faster than in "standard" (or immediate) word naming. There were clear effects of word frequency and age-of-acquisition under speeded naming. Compared to standard immediate naming, the age-of-acquisition effect was larger, with early-acquired words being speeded up more than late-acquired words, which is interpreted in terms of speeded naming reducing the contribution of sublexical processing to word naming times.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Word-based grouping affects the prime-task effect on semantic priming.

Semantic priming between words is reduced or eliminated if a low-level task such as letter search is performed on the prime word (the prime task effect), a finding used to question the automaticity of semantic processing of words. This idea is critically examined in 3 experiments with a new design that allows the search target to occur both inside and outside the prime word. The new design produces the prime task effect (Experiment 1) but shows semantic negative priming when the target letter occurs outside the prime word (Experiments 2 and 3). It is proposed that semantic activation and priming are dissociable and that inhibition and word-based grouping are responsible for reduction of semantic priming in the prime task effect.

Adult↗

PubMed1978

Perceptual flexibility in word recognition: strategies affect orthographic computation but not lexical access.

Four tachistoscopic forced-choice recognition experiments explored the flexibility of processes underlying word perception. Stimuli were words, orthographically regular but unfamiliar pseudowords, and orthographically irregular nonsense strings. In the first two experiments, subjects knew that several different kinds of stimuli would occur in each block of trials and that one kind would occur much more often than the others. No matter which stimulus subjects expected to see most often, accuracy on words and pseudowords differed little, and both were identified considerably better than nonsense. In the third and fourth experiments, subjects were led to believe that only on stimulus type would occur but were surreptitiously shown another type on a small number of trials. Words were again identified more accurately than nonsense, and the size of the effect was independent of expectations. However, when either words or nonsense strings were expected exclusively, pseudoword accuracy did not differ from nonsense accuracy. Only when subjects knew that pseudowords would occur did they identify pseudowords more accurately than nonsense. This dissociation between word and pseudoword identification indicates the operation of two independent encoding mechanisms during tachistoscopic recognition, a stimulus-specific or logogenlike system sensitive to particular familiar strings and an orthographic mechanism sensitive to generally applicable constraints on letter sequencing. The stimulus-specific mechanism appears to be utilized automatically, but use of the orthographic mechanism is under strategic control. As shown in the first two experiments, however, rather extraordinary measures were required to demonstrate the flexibility of the orthographic processes used in this task.

Cognition↗

PubMed2005

Right hemisphere sensitivity to word- and sentence-level context: evidence from event-related brain potentials.

Researchers using lateralized stimuli have suggested that the left hemisphere is sensitive to sentence-level context, whereas the right hemisphere (RH) primarily processes word-level meaning. The authors investigated this message-blind RH model by measuring associative priming with event-related brain potentials (ERPs). For word pairs in isolation, associated words elicited more positive ERPs than unassociated words with similar magnitudes and onset latencies in both visual fields. Embedded in sentences, these same pairs showed large sentential context effects in both fields. Small effects of association were observed, confined to incongruous sentences after right visual hemifield presentation but present for both congruous and incongruous sentences after left visual hemifield presentation. Results do not support the message-blind RH model but do suggest hemispheric asymmetries in the use of word and sentence context during real-time processing.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Do deaf children use phonological syllables as reading units?

This study aimed at examining whether deaf children process written words on the basis of phonological units. In French, the syllable is a phonologically and orthographically well-defined unit. French deaf children and hearing children matched on word recognition level were asked to copy written words and pseudo-words. The number of glances at the item, copying duration, and the locus of the first segmentation (i.e., after the first glance) within the item were measured. The main question was whether the segments copied by the deaf children corresponded to syllables as defined by phonological and orthographic rules.The results showed that deaf children, like hearing children, used syllables as copying units when the syllable boundaries were marked both by orthographic and phonological criteria. However, in a condition in which orthographic and phonological criteria were differentiated, the deaf children did not perform phonological segmentations while the hearing children did. We discuss two explanatory hypotheses. First, items in this condition were difficult to decode for deaf children; second, orthographic units were probably easier to process for deaf children than phonological units because of a lack of automaticity in their phonological conversion processes for pseudo-words. Finally, incidental observations during the experimental task raised the question of the use of fingerspelled units.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1985

Reaction time to word meaning and ink color of laterally-presented stroop stimuli: effects of handedness and sex.

In two experiments, subjects pressed a key labeled Red or Green in response to a 100 msec duration stimulus presented to the left or right visual field. In Experiment I, subjects responded to the meaning of Stroop words; the stimulus was the word Red or Green printed in red, green, or white ink. In Experiment II, subjects responded to ink color; the stimulus was either the word Red or Green printed in red or green ink or a red or green color patch. In each experiment, there were 20 strongly right-handed subjects and 20 strongly left-handed subjects. Half the subjects in each handedness group were male and half were female. In both experiments, RT was faster when words were presented to the right visual field than to the left visual field, suggesting that both meaning and ink color of Stroop words were processed more quickly in the left hemisphere. Results of both experiments revealed faster reactions when meaning and ink color of the Stroop words were congruent than when they were not. A comparison with baseline trials indicated that the RT difference between responses to congruent and incongruent Stroop words was due to the incongruent cue interfering with information processing rather than to the congruent cue facilitating processing. Hypothesized interactions between stimulus position, congruence, handedness and sex were not significant.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Lexical processing of vocabulary class in patients with Broca's aphasia: an event-related brain potential study on agrammatic comprehension.

This paper presents electrophysiological evidence of an impairment in the on-line processing of word class information in patients with Broca's aphasia with agrammatic comprehension. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from the scalp while Broca patients and non-aphasic control subjects read open- and closed-class words that appeared one at a time on a PC screen. Separate waveforms were computed for open- and closed-class words. The non-aphasic control subjects showed a modulation of an early left anterior negativity in the 210-325ms as a function of vocabulary class (VC), and a late left anterior negative shift to closed-class words in the 400-700ms epoch. An N400 effect was present in both control subjects and Broca patients. We have taken the early electrophysiological differences to reflect the first availability of word-category information from the mental lexicon. The late differences can be related to post-lexical processing. In contrast to the control subjects, the Broca patients showed no early VC effect and no late anterior shift to closed-class words. The results support the view that an incomplete and/or delayed availability of word-class information might be an important factor in Broca's agrammatic comprehension.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Sex differences in brain activation patterns during processing of positively and negatively valenced emotional words.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that men and women process emotional stimuli differently. In this study, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate gender differences in regional cerebral activity during the perception of positive or negative emotions. METHOD: The experiment comprised two emotional conditions (positively/negatively valenced words) during which fMRI data were acquired. RESULTS: Thirty-eight healthy volunteers (19 males, 19 females) were investigated. A direct comparison of brain activation between men and women revealed differential activation in the right putamen, the right superior temporal gyrus, and the left supramarginal gyrus during processing of positively valenced words versus non-words for women versus men. By contrast, during processing of negatively valenced words versus non-words, relatively greater activation was seen in the left perirhinal cortex and hippocampus for women versus men, and in the right supramarginal gyrus for men versus women. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest gender-related neural responses to emotional stimuli and could contribute to the understanding of mechanisms underlying the gender disparity of neuropsychiatric diseases such as mood disorders.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Inverted EEG theta lateralization in dyslexic children during phonological processing.

The phonological deficit hypothesis of dyslexia has been investigated in the present research by analysing language-related lateralization of the EEG theta band in a sample of dyslexic children. To this aim, a paradigm based on word-pair visual presentation was used in which the same words were processed in Semantic and Phonological tasks. Theta band amplitude, a cortical index that has been related to working memory processing, was analysed during four different phases of word elaboration, thus allowing to measure also the temporal dynamics of word reading/encoding in the verbal working memory. Control subjects showed a specific (and therefore efficient) task-related and time-dependent cortical activation: a peak of theta activity during word reading was found that decayed during the next inter stimulus interval. Furthermore, during word presentation in the Phonological task, theta amplitude was greater on the left hemisphere. Dyslexics evidenced an altered pattern of theta activation both in the temporal dimension and in the cortical space: their peak of activity was delayed to the first inter stimulus interval after word offset and was shifted to the right hemisphere throughout the whole epoch of Phonological task and in two phases of the Semantic task. Analysis of alpha band failed to replicate the complex pattern of lateralization found for theta band in the two groups, a result that suggests a specific functional role of theta band, which cannot be interpreted as a simple marker of cortical inhibition. Results point to a deficit, in dyslexic children, to recruit left hemisphere structures for the elaboration of the phonological component of the verbal working memory. This deficit was marked by a different, unspecific and dysfunctional hemispherical asymmetry of theta activation to language, a deficit that involved also the time course of phonological linguistic elaboration.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2001

The effects of attention on perceptual implicit memory.

Reports on the effects of dividing attention at study on subsequent perceptual priming suggest that perceptual priming is generally unaffected by attentional manipulations as long as word identity is processed. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments by using the implicit word fragment completion and word stem completion tasks. Division of attention was instantiated with the Stroop task in order to ensure the processing of word identity even when the participant's attention was directed to a stimulus attribute other than the word itself. Under these conditions, we found that even though perceptual priming was significant, it was significantly reduced in magnitude. A stem cued recall test in Experiment 2 confirmed a more deleterious effect of divided attention on explicit memory. Taken together, our findings delineate the relative contributions of perceptual analysis and attentional processes in mediating perceptual priming on two ubiquitously used tasks of word fragment completion and word stem completion.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Semantic priming of Kanji words in the cerebral hemispheres.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate how the spreading activation arose in hemispheres using single and 2-letter Kanji words. Results suggested that single- and 2-letter Kanji words were processed differentially and the semantic activation mechanisms seemed to be different from that of English words.

Brain↗

PubMed2002

Semantic dysfunction in women with schizotypal personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether early or late processes in semantic networks were abnormal in women with a diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder. The N400 component of the EEG event-related potentials was used as a probe of semantic processes. METHOD: Word pairs were presented with short and long stimulus-onset asynchronies to investigate, respectively, early and late semantic processes in 16 women with schizotypal personality disorder and 15 normal female comparison subjects. Event-related potentials were recorded in response to the last words in a pair. RESULTS: With the short stimulus-onset asynchrony, the N400 amplitude was less negative in the schizotypal personality disorder group than in the normal comparison group. No group differences were found with the long stimulus-onset asynchrony. CONCLUSIONS: The finding of a less negative than normal N400 amplitude with the short stimulus-onset asynchrony in women with schizotypal personality disorder supports the hypothesis that persons with this disorder evince an overactivation of semantic networks. The absence of group differences with the long stimulus-onset asynchrony, which is primarily sensitive to processes involved in context integration, suggests that in this group of schizotypal personality disorder subjects, additional demands on working memory may be necessary to bring out the semantic dysfunction.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of lexical stress in auditory word recognition.

Although research examining the use of prosodic information in the processing of spoken words has increased in recent years, results from these studies have been inconclusive. The present series of experiments systematically examines the importance of one prosodic variable (lexical stress) in the recognition of isolated spoken words. Data collected in an identification task suggest that segmental information may be more heavily relied upon when appropriate lexical stress information is not available. Results of subsequent reaction time experiments support the hypothesis that lexical stress influences the processing of auditorily presented words. In three shadowing experiments, correctly stressed items were produced faster than incorrectly stressed items, and in a lexical decision experiment, correctly stressed words were classified faster than incorrectly stressed words. Thus, this work provides evidence across several experimental tasks for the use of lexical stress information in the processing of spoken words. Moreover, the data suggest that lexical stress should be an important aspect of the representation of words in an interactive model of auditory word recognition.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Effects of phonotactic and orthotactic probabilities during fast mapping on 5-year-olds' learning to spell.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the orthographic-processing skills of typically developing 5-year-old preschool children. Of interest was whether phonotactic probabilities and/or orthotactic probabilities affected their ability to quickly learn the orthographic forms of 12 novel words. Orthographic processing was measured by the children's ability to spell and identify spellings of the novel words. Specifically, we were interested in whether (a) children quickly stored or "fast mapped" orthographic information after minimal exposure to novel words during storybook readings, (b) phonotactic and orthotactic probabilities affected orthographic fast-mapping skills, and (c) orthographic processing explained unique variance on a measure of the children's early spelling abilities. The results of this study indicated that young children quickly fast mapped orthographic information after minimal exposure to novel words, and their spelling (generation or reproduction but not recognition) was influenced by phonotactic and orthotactic probabilities. The significance of this work is that it demonstrates that preschoolers can fast map orthographic words they see onto spoken words they hear while listening to storybooks read to them and that the spelling of preschoolers is influenced uniquely by both phonological and orthographic information (probability of frequent letter and sound sequences in English words).

Child↗

PubMed2005

Sex differences in the activation of language cortex during childhood.

Sex differences have been well documented in the behavioral literature but have occurred inconsistently in the neuroimaging literature. This investigation examined the impact of subject age, language task, and cortical region on the occurrence of sex differences in functional magnetic resonance imaging. Two hundred and five (104 m, 101 f) right handed, monolingual English speaking children between the ages of 5 and 18 years were enrolled in this study. The study used fMRI at 3T to evaluate BOLD signal variation associated with sex, age, and their interaction. Children completed up to four language tasks, which involved listening to stories, prosody processing, single word vocabulary identification, and verb generation. A sex difference for behavioral performance was found for the prosodic processing task only. Brain activation in the classical left hemisphere language areas of the brain and their right homologues were assessed for sex differences. Although left lateralization was present for both frontal and temporal regions for all but the prosody task, no significant sex differences were found for the degree of lateralization. Sex x age interaction effects were found for all but the task involving single word vocabulary. However effect sizes associated with the sex differences were small, which suggests that relatively large sample sizes would be needed to detect these effects reliably.

Adolescent↗