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Previous studies have demonstrated that the activation of stereotype conflict is similar to the N400 congruency effect shown by the activation of semantic violation. In order to distinguish the differences between the two, the first experiment used gender stereotype trait words as target stimuli, and used "male/female" and "synonym of trait words/antonym of trait words" as priming stimuli respectively, so that the subjects completed the consistency determination task. In experiment 2, gender stereotyped behavior pictures were used as target stimuli, and "male/female" was used as priming stimuli, so that the subjects completed the task of consistency determination. The results showed that both gender stereotype conflict and semantic violation could induce N400 a congruency effect. Importantly, the N400 amplitude and response latency induced by gender stereotype activation are both smaller than those induced by semantic activation. These results show that stereotype activation is distinct from semantic activation, further demonstrating that the brain preferentially processes information related to gender stereotypes, and gender stereotype cognitive processing is more likely to happen than semantic knowledge processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Previous studies have demonstrated that the activation of stereotype conflict is similar to the N400 congruency effect shown by the activation of semantic violation. In order to distinguish the differences between the two, the first experiment used gender stereotype trait words as target stimuli, and used “male/female” and “synonym of trait words/antonym of trait words” as priming stimuli respectively, so that the subjects completed the consistency determination task. In experiment 2, gender stereotyped behavior pictures were used as target stimuli, and “male/female” was used as priming stimuli, so that the subjects completed the task of consistency determination. The results showed that both gender stereotype conflict and semantic violation could induce N400 a congruency effect. Importantly, the N400 amplitude and response latency induced by gender stereotype activation are both smaller than those induced by semantic activation. These results show that stereotype activation is distinct from semantic activation, further demonstrating that the brain preferentially processes information related to gender stereotypes, and gender stereotype cognitive processing is more likely to happen than semantic knowledge processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action processing is crucial for sports activities. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study investigated whether semantics were activated in action processing and, if so, whether semantic activation was modulated by action duration. Badminton athletes were recruited to finish a lexical decision task following an action-semantic priming paradigm, in which short (400 ms) or long (1000 ms) action videos served as primes, and semantically congruent or incongruent action words served as targets. The ERP results showed a P300 effect, that is, larger P300 amplitudes were observed for targets primed by semantically incongruent action videos than for targets primed by semantically congruent action videos, only when the action videos were long and not when the action videos were short. Moreover, a late positive component (LPC) was only sensitive to action duration, showing that the targets primed by long action videos elicited larger LPC amplitudes compared to the targets primed by short action videos. These results suggested that semantics could be activated in action processing and that semantic activation was modulated by action duration, supporting a link between the language system and action processing.

In educational settings, tests are mainly used to measure the extent to which learners’ knowledge and skill have been acquired. However, the act of taking a test also promotes learning itself. In particular, making errors on tests (i.e., searching for erroneous information) promotes learning. This is called the “failed retrieval effect” (FRE) and has been the subject of considerable study. Previous research shows that enhanced learning does not occur if feedback correcting an error is delayed. This is attributed to the relative absence of activated information. In this study, we manipulated both the amount of information to be retrieved prior to learning and the delay time until feedback is given to investigate their effects on learning. As a result, even when multiple incorrect answers were given to increase the degree of semantic activation, learning was not promoted beyond that found with traditional procedures that rely on only one incorrect response. The timing of feedback (immediate, short-delay, long-delay) also did not impact FRE. However, the manipulation of response format for erroneous information resulted in degraded performance when responses were typed and feedback was delayed. Based on this result, we suggested that the failed retrieval effect was not affected by semantic activation at the time of retrieval but was affected by response format. Moreover, the processing necessary for typing may affect FRE under the delayed feedback condition.

In the current study, the role of semantic activation in the process of word recognition was investigated among native Arab readers. Twenty-nine typical readers in third grade were tested in reading three lists of pseudowords. Each list consisted of thirty pseudowords (lists A, B and C). Each word in list A was matched with a real meaning, and each participant was trained during eight training sessions to learn the meanings of the pseudowords (the semantic list). For list B, the participants were exposed only to the phonological pronunciation of each word during eight phonological training sessions. List "C" was not used for trained at all, and the participants were not exposed to this list either semantically or phonologically. The training processes occurred aloud, and the participants were not exposed to the orthographic pattern of any pseudoword. The results showed that reading the semantic pseudowords revealed the highest accuracy levels and shorter reading times compared to reading the pseudowords from the phonological training trial and the unfamiliar pseudowords. The results support the assumption about the role of semantic activation in word recognition and shed light on the importance of vocabulary knowledge to the process of reading new words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) has achieved good results in object detection but there are problems such as insufficient understanding of context information and loss of features in deep layers. In order to alleviate these problems, we propose a single-shot object detection network Context Perception-SSD (CP-SSD). CP-SSD promotes the network's understanding of context information by using context information scene perception modules, so as to capture context information for objects of different scales. Deep layer feature map used semantic activation module, through self-supervised learning to adjust the context feature information and channel interdependence, and enhance useful semantic information. CP-SSD was validated on benchmark dataset PASCAL VOC 2007. The experimental results show that, compared with SSD, the mean Average Precision (mAP) of the CP-SSD detection method reaches 77.8%, which is 0.6% higher than that of SSD, and the detection effect was significantly improved in images with difficult to distinguish the object from the background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study replicates and extends the findings of Koppehele-Gossel, Schnuerch, and Gibbons (2016) of a posterior semantic asymmetry (PSA) in event-related brain potentials (ERPs), which closely tracks the time course and degree of semantic activation from single visual words. This negativity peaked 300 ms after word onset, was derived by subtracting right- from left-side activity, and was larger in a semantic task compared to two non-semantic control tasks. The validity of the PSA in reflecting the effort to activate word meaning was again attested by a negative correlation between the meaning-specific PSA increase and verbal intelligence, even after controlling for nonverbal intelligence. Extending prior work, current source density (CSD) transformation was used. CSD results were consistent with a left temporo-parietal cortical origin of the PSA. Moreover, no PSA was found for pictorial material, suggesting that the component reflects early semantic processing specific to verbal stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Stroop (1935), semantic access has been seen as automatic but today this is questioned, following minor modifications of the Stroop task. Besner, Stolz and Boutilier (1997) showed that coloring a single letter differently from the others and asking the participant to name the color of this letter, significantly reduced the Stroop effect. Huguet, Galvaing, Monteil and Dumas (1999) showed that another person’s presence during the test significantly reduced the Stroop effect. Raz, Shapiro, Fan and Posner (2002) showed a reduction in Stroop effect when hypnotized participants were told what would appear on the screen was not a word. These reductions suggest that semantic access of a word needs attentional resources, and is not automatic. This review summarizes recent results concerning reduction of the Stroop effect through the three manipulations mentioned above. The similarities and conflicts of these studies are illustrated. The conclusions suggest that these manipulations seem not to reduce or prevent automatic semantic activation, but rather reduce non-semantic task-relevant response competition. Using measures other than behavioral measures like Event-Related Potentials and a new definition of automaticity are proposed to understand better the different results cited.

Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) has achieved good results in object detection but there are problems such as insufficient understanding of context information and loss of features in deep layers. In order to alleviate these problems, we propose a single-shot object detection network Context Perception-SSD (CP-SSD). CP-SSD promotes the network’s understanding of context information by using context information scene perception modules, so as to capture context information for objects of different scales. Deep layer feature map used semantic activation module, through self-supervised learning to adjust the context feature information and channel interdependence, and enhance useful semantic information. CP-SSD was validated on benchmark dataset PASCAL VOC 2007. The experimental results show that, compared with SSD, the mean Average Precision (mAP) of the CP-SSD detection method reaches 77.8%, which is 0.6% higher than that of SSD, and the detection effect was significantly improved in images with difficult to distinguish the object from the background.

A widely accepted belief across a range of subfields in psychology is that print activates semantics 'automatically' in some sense. One such sense is that activating semantics does not require capacity. This view is assessed here in the context of the Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) paradigm because it provides a way of determining whether semantic activation requires a form of capacity. Task 1 was tone classification. Task 2 was Stroop color naming. The distractors consisted of color words on some trials (e.g., BLUE), and semantic associates on others (e.g., TOMATO). Both types of distractors yielded a pattern of data inconsistent with the widespread view that semantic activation is capacity free. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesion and imaging studies consistently indicate a left-lateralization of semantic language processing in human temporo-parietal cortex. Surprisingly, electrocortical measures, which allow a direct assessment of brain activity and the tracking of cognitive functions with millisecond precision, have not yet been used to capture this hemispheric lateralization, at least with respect to posterior portions of this effect. Using event-related potentials, we employed a simple single-word reading paradigm to compare neural activity during three tasks requiring different degrees of semantic processing. As expected, we were able to derive a simple temporo-parietal left-right asymmetry index peaking around 300ms into word processing that neatly tracks the degree of semantic activation. The validity of this measure in specifically capturing verbal semantic activation was further supported by a significant relation to verbal intelligence. We thus posit that it represents a promising tool to monitor verbal semantic processing in the brain with little technological effort and in a minimal experimental setup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perea, Duñabeitia, and Carreiras ( Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 34:237-241, ) found that LEET stimuli, formed by a mixture of digits and letters (e.g., T4BL3 instead of TABLE), produced priming effects similar to those for regular words. This finding led them to conclude that LEET stimuli automatically activate lexical information. In the present study, we examined whether semantic activation occurs for LEET stimuli by using an electrophysiological measure called the N400 effect. The N400 effect, also known as the mismatch negativity, reflects detection of a mismatch between a word and the current semantic context. This N400 effect could occur only if the LEET stimulus had been identified and processed semantically. Participants determined whether a stimulus (word or LEET) was related to a given category (e.g., APPLE or 4PPL3 belongs to the category 'fruit,' but TABLE or T4BL3 does not). We found that LEET stimuli produced an N400 effect similar in magnitude to that for regular uppercase words, suggesting that LEET stimuli can access meaning in a manner similar to words presented in consistent uppercase letters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual route models of reading suggest there are 2 pathways for reading words: an orthographic-lexical pathway, used to read familiar regular words and exception words, and a grapheme-to-phoneme-conversion-(GPC)-sublexical pathway, used to read unfamiliar regular words, pseudohomophones (PHs), and nonwords. It is unclear, however, whether PHs activate lexical and semantic representations without intention in the GPC-sublexical pathway to the same extent as words along the orthographic-lexical pathway. The present study explored this by introducing a novel condition, color pseudohomophone associates (CPHAs; e.g., "skigh"), in 3 experiments using the Stroop paradigm. Experiment 1 examined 4 types of stimuli: color words (CWs), color word associates (CWAs), color PHs (CPHs), and color PH associates (CPHAs), in a mixed list context. Significant Stroop effects were found for all 4 types of stimuli. To ensure the robustness of this effect, Experiment 2 was conducted using pure list contexts whereby participants received only word stimuli (e.g., CWs, CWAs) or only PH stimuli (e.g., CPHs, CPHAs). The results replicated those of Experiment 1, suggesting that CPHAs activate lexical and semantic representations without intention in the GPC-sublexical pathway. Experiment 3 added 2 novel conditions: color exception word associates (which can only be pronounced correctly using the orthographic-lexical pathway) to compare the effects obtained with color exception PH associates (which rely on the GPC-sublexical pathway for correct pronunciation). Stroop effects of similar magnitude were found for both types of stimuli, suggesting lexical and semantic representations are accessed without intention in either reading pathway to a similar degree. Implications for models of reading are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Stroop (1935), semantic access has been seen as automatic but today this is questioned, following minor modifications of the Stroop task. Besner, Stolz and Boutilier (1997) showed that coloring a single letter differently from the others and asking the participant to name the color of this letter, significantly reduced the Stroop effect. Huguet, Galvaing, Monteil and Dumas (1999) showed that another person's presence during the test significantly reduced the Stroop effect. Raz, Shapiro, Fan and Posner (2002) showed a reduction in Stroop effect when hypnotized participants were told what would appear on the screen was not a word. These reductions suggest that semantic access of a word needs attentional resources, and is not automatic. This review summarizes recent results concerning reduction of the Stroop effect through the three manipulations mentioned above. The similarities and conflicts of these studies are illustrated. The conclusions suggest that these manipulations seem not to reduce or prevent automatic semantic activation, but rather reduce non-semantic task-relevant response competition. Using measures other than behavioral measures like Event-Related Potentials and a new definition of automaticity are proposed to understand better the different results cited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From their finding that the substantial magnitude of the Stroop interference that occurs when a participant's initial fixation is directed at the optimal viewing position is eliminated when the initial fixation is directed at the end of a word, Perret and Ducrot () concluded that initial fixation at the latter position likely prevents reading. In the present study, we further examined this interpretation. To this end, the two conflict dimensions (semantic vs. response) that were confounded in the original work were separated within a semantically based Stroop paradigm (Neely & Kahan, ) that was administered with vocal (instead of manual) responses. In line with past findings showing greater interference in the vocal task, the reported results indicated that standard Stroop interference was reduced, but not eliminated, thus making the initial interpretation in terms of reading suppression unlikely. This conclusion is further strengthened by the presence of isolated semantic interference, the magnitude of which remained significant and was unaffected by viewing position. In sum, these results show that initial fixation of the end of a word simply reduces (nonsemantic) response competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recently, Goldfarb, Aisenberg, and Henik (2011) showed that in a manual format of the Stroop task, dyslexia priming eliminates the normal magnitude of the interference-based Stroop-like findings otherwise exhibited by individuals participating in such research. Goldfarb et al. (2011) consequently concluded that the effect of word reading in a Stroop task (i.e., one automatic behavior) can be effectively controlled through an automatic instruction “do not read” (i.e., another automatic behavior). The present study further investigated these ideas by examining when and how dyslexia priming controls different processes involved in a Stroop task. To this end, the original finding was first replicated (Experiment 1) and subsequently extended to the vocal (instead of manual) response modality to examine whether previously reported eliminations of the Stroop effect persist with this response format (i.e., format producing larger Stroop effects). Since past work (e.g., Augustinova & Ferrand, 2012a; Brown, Joneleit et al., 2002; Ferrand & Augustinova, 2013) had suggested that various interventions were likely to reduce (rather than eliminate) the interference-based Stroop-like findings with vocal responses, a further aim of these experiments was to identify the component of these findings that dyslexia priming actually reduces. To this end, the effects of this intervention were examined in a more fine-grained variant of the Stroop task that distinguished between interference resulting from task-irrelevant processes involved in computing the lexical and semantic representations of the word (i.e., a written distractor to ignore) and task-relevant processes involved in the selection of a response (i.e., a color target to name) that are both involved in this task. In line with our past work (e.g., Augustinova & Ferrand, 2012a; Ferrand & Augustinova, 2013), the results of two experiments (Experiments 2 and 3) showed that in the vocal format, dyslexia priming reduces but does not eliminate the normal magnitude of the interference-based Stroop-like findings and that this reduction is solely due to the control of processes involved in the selection of a response (i.e., a color target to name) – processes that are known to be controllable in this format (Ferrand & Augustinova, 2013). Given that in this format, dyslexia priming had no effect on task-irrelevant processes involved in computing the lexical and semantic representations of a written distractor to be ignored – processes that are known to be automatic – further implications for the control of automatic processes via dyslexia priming are considered and an interpretation in terms of a unitary control mechanism for both the manual and vocal formats is proposed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Action processing is crucial for sports activities. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study investigated whether semantics were activated in action processing and, if so, whether semantic activation was modulated by action duration. Badminton athletes were recruited to finish a lexical decision task following an action-semantic priming paradigm, in which short (400 ms) or long (1000 ms) action videos served as primes, and semantically congruent or incongruent action words served as targets. The ERP results showed a P300 effect, that is, larger P300 amplitudes were observed for targets primed by semantically incongruent action videos than for targets primed by semantically congruent action videos, only when the action videos were long and not when the action videos were short. Moreover, a late positive component (LPC) was only sensitive to action duration, showing that the targets primed by long action videos elicited larger LPC amplitudes compared to the targets primed by short action videos. These results suggested that semantics could be activated in action processing and that semantic activation was modulated by action duration, supporting a link between the language system and action processing.

The current study examined the contribution of semantic knowledge to the process of reading aloud unfamiliar words among thirty non-typical readers from third grade. The performances of reading aloud were tested by using three lists of pseudowords: semantic, phonological, and un-trained. For each pseudoword in the list of semantic condition, an invented meaning was matched, and the participants orally trained to learn such invented meaning. For the list of the phonological condition, the participants were orally taught the pronunciation of the pseudowords only, while the third list of pseudowords was not trained at all. After the training phase, the subjects were examined by reading aloud the pseudowords which were presented randomly. For all lists of the pseudowords, there was no orthographic exposure before the reading trial. The findings showed that the higher levels of accuracy were significantly recorded for the semantic condition as compared to the other conditions, without a significant difference in the reading rate between all the conditions. The current findings were discussed in the context of the contribution of semantic activation to reading aloud of written words.

This study examines the effects of semantic and phonetic radicals on Chinese character decoding by high-intermediate level Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners. The results of the study suggest that the CFL learners tested have a well-developed semantic pathway to recognition; however, their phonological pathway is not yet a reliable means of character identification. Semantic radicals that correctly pertain to character meaning facilitated reaction time in semantic categorization tasks, while radicals that had no immediately interpretable relation to character meaning had a strong inhibitory effect. The relative accuracy of phonetic radicals (for predicting the whole-character's pronunciation) did not measurably improve homonym recognition. In a lexical decision task (Experiment 3), the subjects were significantly slower in identifying pseudo-characters when the phonological component was blurred, indicating that, despite having unreliable phonological pathways to character recognition, the subjects were still using phonological radical analysis as their default recognition strategy; however, the author argues that the radical is likely being used for orthographic disambiguation more than for phonological properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Numerous studies have indicated that thought disorganization in schizophrenia is associated with an enhanced semantic priming effect. This suggests abnormal functioning of the semantic network in these patients, with disinhibited spreading of semantic activation. We investigated whether thought disorganization is also associated with atypical responses in the production of semantic category exemplars. An exemplar production task was administered to 43 patients with schizophrenia and 24 healthy controls. The names of 16 semantic categories were provided, and the participants were requested to produce an exemplar for each category. The typicality of the response was rated according to norms. Higher ratings of thought disorganization were associated with the production of more atypical exemplars. In addition, the patients with high thought disorganization scores were significantly more atypical in their responses than were the healthy controls. In contrast, the patients with low thought disorganization scores were equivalent to the healthy controls. Higher ratings of affective flattening were associated with the production of less atypical exemplars. The results corroborate, within a different paradigm than semantic priming, the theory that thought disorganization is associated with faster and more distant connections within the semantic network. This effect is counteracted by affective flattening. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Previous research on the lateralization of memory errors suggests that the right hemisphere’s tendency to produce more memory errors than the left hemisphere reflects hemispheric differences in semantic activation. However, all prior research that has examined the lateralization of memory errors has used self-paced recognition judgments. Because activation occurs early in memory retrieval, with more time to make a decision, other memory processes, like strategic monitoring processes, may affect memory errors. By manipulating the time subjects were given to make memory decisions, this study separated the influence of automatic memory processes (activation) from strategic memory processes (monitoring) on the production of false memories. The results indicated that when retrieval was fast, the right hemisphere produced more memory errors than the left hemisphere. However, when retrieval was slow, the left hemisphere’s error-proneness increased compared to the fast retrieval condition, while the right hemisphere’s error-proneness remained the same. These results suggest that the right hemisphere’s errors are largely due to activation, while the left hemisphere’s errors are influenced by both activation and monitoring. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Several studies have shown that mere social presence reduces Stroop interference but processes underlying such effect are still poorly understood. Given that the standard Stroop task used in those studies confounds semantic and response competition, it remains unclear whether Stroop words are processed normally (Sharma, Booth, Brown, & Huguet, 2010) or whether the processing of their semantic representations is altered (Huguet, Galvaing, Monteil, & Dumas, 1999, Exp. 1). The direct evidence from the semantically-based Stroop task (i.e., a task that is free of response competition and thus isolates the semantic component of the Stroop interference, Neely & Kahan, 2001) provided in this paper attests normal semantic processing. Such result refutes the idea that semantic activation can be prevented or controlled by social presence and thus adds to the growing body of evidence showing that semantic activation is indeed automatic. Also importantly, this paper offers an alternative explanation of past findings, which holds that social presence simply reduces the response competition that occurs in the standard Stroop task and sheds some light on the processes that underlie social-facilitating effects of mere presence in the Stroop task. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The issue investigated in the present research is the nature of the information that is responsible for producing masked priming effects (e.g., semantic information or stimulus-response [S-R] associations) when responding to number stimuli. This issue was addressed by assessing both the magnitude of the category congruence (priming) effect and the nature of the priming distance effect across trials using single-digit primes and targets. Participants made either magnitude (i.e., whether the number presented was larger or smaller than 5) or identification (i.e., press the left button if the number was either a 1, 2, 3, or 4 or the right button if the number was either a 6, 7, 8, or 9) judgments. The results indicated that, regardless of task instruction, there was a clear priming distance effect and a significantly increasing category congruence effect. These results indicated that both semantic activation and S-R associations play important roles in producing masked priming effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have shown that the suggestion for participants to construe words as meaningless symbols reduces, or even eliminates, standard Stroop interference in highly suggestible individuals (Raz, Fan, & Posner, ; Raz, Kirsch, Pollard, & Nitkin-Kaner, ). In these studies, the researchers consequently concluded that this suggestion de-automatizes word reading. The aim of the present study was to closely examine this claim. To this end, highly suggestible individuals completed both standard and semantically based Stroop tasks, either with or without a suggestion to construe the words as meaningless symbols (manipulated in both a between-participants [Exp. 1] and a within-participants [Exp. 2] design). By showing that suggestion substantially reduced standard Stroop interference, these two experiments replicated Raz et al.'s () results. However, in both experiments we also found significant semantically based Stroop effects of similar magnitudes in all suggestion conditions. Taken together, these results indicate that the suggestion to construe words as meaningless symbols does not eliminate, or even reduce, semantic activation (assessed by the semantically based Stroop effect) in highly suggestible individuals, and that such an intervention most likely reduces nonsemantic task-relevant response competition related to the standard Stroop task. In sum, contrary to Raz et al.'s claim, suggestion does not de-automatize or prevent reading (as shown by a significant amount of semantic processing), but rather seems to influence response competition. These results also add to the growing body of evidence showing that semantic activation in the Stroop task is indeed automatic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background and objectives: Previous research has indicated abnormal semantic activation in individuals scoring higher in schizotypy. In the current experiment, semantic activation was examined by using the Deese-Roediger–McDermott paradigm of false memories. Methods: Participants were assessed for schizotypy using the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings (OLIFE). Participants studied lists of semantically related words in which a critical and highly associated word was absent. Participants then recalled the list. Results: Participants high in Unusual Experiences and Cognitive Disorganization recalled more critical non-presented words, weakly related studied words, and fewer studied words than participants who scored low on these measures. Limitations: Previous research using the cognitive-perceptual factor of the Schizotypy Personality Questionnaire found reduced false memories, while the Unusual Experiences subscale of the OLIFE was associated with more false memories. Both scales cover similar unusual perceptual experiences and it is unclear why they led to divergent results. Conclusions: The findings suggest that subtypes of schizotypy are associated with abnormal semantic activation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Five experiments were conducted to examine how unsuccessful retrieval influences learning and subsequent memory. We used a cued-recall paradigm that produces many unsuccessful retrieval attempts (followed by feedback) and allows comparisons to be made between later memory for these trials and trials that only required reading or studying the pairs. On read trials participants studied cue–target pairs that were either weakly associated (DOOR–EXIT) or unrelated but identical in length (DOOR–SHOE). On test trials participants were given only the cue (either without [Exps. 1–3] or with [Exps. 4–5] prior experience with the pair items) and asked to guess the target which they were told was either semantically related or identical in length to the cue; then they received the correct cue–target pair to study. Unsuccessful retrieval attempts (i.e., guessing) relative to studying benefited retention for weakly associated pairs but impaired retention for unrelated pairs. This pattern of results occurred regardless of study duration (Experiments 1A and 1B), level of processing of the cue (Experiment 2), whether relatedness was manipulated between or within subjects (Experiment 5), and when guessing involved episodic as opposed to semantic retrieval (Experiments 4 and 5). However, this pattern was partly mediated by the ability to retrieve incorrect guesses during a final cued-recall test which may provide a link between the cue and target (Experiment 3). The current study demonstrates that unsuccessful retrieval attempts with immediate feedback not only enhance, but also can impair learning. This effect is robust and depends on elaborative semantic activation related to the answer and the effectiveness of incorrect guesses as mediating cues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The study investigated phonological processing in bilingual reading for meaning. English–French and French–English bilinguals performed a category verification task in either their first or second language. Interlingual homophones (words that share phonology across languages but not orthography or meaning) and single language control words served as critical stimuli. The interlingual homophones and their control words were not members of the categories, but their interlingual homophone mates were category members (e.g., A vegetable: shoe, where chou in French means “cabbage”). The bilinguals made more errors and had longer decision latencies on homophones than on their control words, providing evidence for cross-language phonological activation of meaning. Results are discussed with respect to the Bilingual Interactive Activation Model (BIA+). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Previous research has described patients with aphasia from thalamic lesions, some of whom were non-fluent with intact comprehension, others who were fluent with impaired comprehension, and some of whom are non-fluent with impaired comprehension. Whereas these three subtypes usually have normal repetition, they had impaired naming, suggesting a deficit in lexical (phonological word forms)-semantic processing. We report a patient with a left thalamic hemorrhage in which lexical-semantic representations appear to be intact but the patient demonstrates an inability to spontaneously activate his lexical-semantic system Methods: A 82-year-old, right-handed man presented with decreased verbal fluency and memory loss following a thalamic hemorrhage. Neuropsychological assessment revealed significant decrements in verbal fluency with intact naming, comprehension, repetition and vocabulary. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge this pattern of language disturbance, which mirrors dynamic aphasia induced by frontal lesions, has not previously been described with thalamic injury. The thalamus has strong connections with the frontal lobe and rather than degradation of lexical-semantic representations, this patient's thalamic lesion probably induced frontal lobe dysfunction with a failure to spontaneously active lexical semantic representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of semantic and phonetic radicals on Chinese character decoding were examined. Our results suggest that semantic and phonetic radicals are each available for access when a corresponding task emphasizes one or the other kind of radical. But in a more neutral lexical recognition task, the semantic radical is more informative. Semantic radicals that correctly pertain to character meaning facilitated reaction time in semantic categorization tasks (Experiment #1), while radicals that had no immediately interpretable relation to character meaning had a strong inhibitory effect. Likewise, phonetic radicals that accurately indicated a character’s pronunciation facilitated a homonym recognition task (Experiment #2), whereas phonetic radicals that differed significantly in pronunciation from their character inhibited homonym recognition. In a lexical decision task (Experiment #3) where each character had either a blurred semantic radical or a blurred phonetic radical, the characters with a blurred semantic radical elicited a significantly higher error rate and a trend for longer response times. These results are interpreted to indicate that while educated native Chinese speakers have full use of both semantic and phonetic paths to character decoding, there is a slight predisposition to semantic decoding strategies over phonetic ones indicating that the semantic path is the default means of character recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments investigated associative priming with a letter-search prime task where either the prime and letter probe were presented simultaneously, or the letter probe appeared 200 ms (Experiment 1) or 300 ms (Experiment 2) after the prime. Weak associative priming was observed in both experiments, but unlike Stolz and Besner (1996) we found no evidence that priming was increased when the probe was delayed. However, strong associative priming was observed when a semantic decision had to be made on the prime (Experiment 3). Our results are consistent with an account where semantic activation of the prime occurs but its action on the target is suppressed by the prime task. The persistence of weak priming effects with the letter search task is explained in terms of the low-frequency items used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the event-related potential (ERP) technique, we examined the time course of phonological and semantic activation in Chinese word recognition. Participants did a semantic judgment task and a homophone judgment task over the same set of word pairs. Each pair was of either high or low word frequency and the two words were either unrelated or related semantically or phonologically, i.e., being homophones. For high-frequency words, both the semantically related pairs in the homophone task and the homophonic pairs in the semantic task elicited ERP responses different from the unrelated control pairs in the N400 component but not any component earlier, suggesting a similar time course for semantic and phonological activation. For low-frequency words, the semantically related pairs in the homophone task were associated with a similar modulation of N400. However, compared to the unrelated controls, the homophonic pairs in the semantic task elicited a larger P200, a component implicated in phonological processing in the literature, and thus demonstrated a phonological activation earlier than semantic activation. The results showed that word frequency affects the time course of semantic and phonological activation suggesting that phonology is not invariably activated before semantics in Chinese word recognition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Concrete concepts are often easier to understand than abstract concepts. The notion of abstractness is thus closely tied to the organisation of our semantic memory, and more specifically our internal lexicon, which underlies our word sense disambiguation (WSD) mechanisms. State-of-the-art automatic WSD systems often draw on a variety of contextual cues and assign word senses by an optimal combination of statistical classifiers. The validity of various lexico-semantic resources as models of our internal lexicon and the cognitive aspects pertinent to the lexical sensitivity of WSD are seldom questioned. We attempt to address these issues by examining psychological evidence of the internal lexicon and its compatibility with the information available from computational lexicons. In particular, we compare the responses from a word association task against existing lexical resources, WordNet and SUMO, to explore the relation between sense abstractness and semantic activation, and thus the implications on semantic network models and the lexical sensitivity of WSD. Our results suggest that concrete senses are more readily activated than abstract senses, and broad associations are more easily triggered than narrow paradigmatic associations. The results are expected to inform the construction of lexico-semantic resources and WSD strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated brain activity elicited by character transposition processing of two-character Chinese words using event-related potentials (ERPs) with a two-target rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. The behavioral results showed higher accuracy with canonical and transposed words than pseudowords in the short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA, 249 ms) condition, but not in the long SOA (581 ms) condition. Additionally, relative to the pseudoword condition, the ERP results indicated that the canonical and transposed words elicited statistically less negative N250 and N400 amplitudes. Furthermore, both the canonical and transposed words revealed no significant differences in the early N100, P200, and N250 components, whereas a significant difference was observed in the N400 amplitude regardless of the SOAs between the two constituent characters, indicating less semantic activation. Taken together, our electrophysiological data indicate that early ERP components are not sensitive to Chinese character transposition. In contrast, such morpheme transposition affects the semantic processing of Chinese compound words. • No differences for N100, P200 and N250 amplitudes between canonical and transposed words • Early ERP components are not sensitive to Chinese character transposition • Transposed words exhibit a more negative N400 amplitude than canonical words • Character transposition affects the lexical representation of compound word in the RSVP task [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study examined whether false memory produced by the learning of lists of categorized and associative materials could be reduced by directed forgetting. The number of items within a list that participants were asked to remember or forget was manipulated, while the length of the list remained constant. Experiment 1a used categorized lists and Experiment 1b used associative lists; the participants performed immediate free recall and cued recall tests. For both the categorized and associative lists, the rate of false recall increased upon increasing the proportion of “forget” (F) words. After removing the immediate recall test, Experiment 2 found that intentionally forgetting part of the studied list reduced false memory, whereas forgetting the whole studied list did not. The results are discussed in terms of the list-level-vs.-item-level inhibition in semantic activation and the role of monitoring in reducing false memory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: From a behavioural point of view, the automaticity of semantic activation was denied because letter search eliminates semantic priming effects on RT. From a neuroscience point of view, two recent studies used the N400 to test this claim with antithetic results. Here, we replicate N400 priming effects in the letter search task. The negative results might be traced back to the use of an inappropriate reference electrode. Thus, the theory of semantic activation being an automatic process should not be abandoned prematurely. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Two experiments explore the activation of semantic information during spoken word recognition. Experiment 1 shows that as the name of an object unfolds (e.g., lock), eye movements are drawn to pictorial representations of both the named object and semantically related objects (e.g., key). Experiment 2 shows that objects semantically related to an uttered word's onset competitors become active enough to draw visual attention (e.g., if the uttered word is logs, participants fixate on key because of partial activation of lock), despite that the onset competitor itself is not present in the visual display. Together, these experiments provide detailed information about the activation of semantic information associated with a spoken word and its phonological competitors and demonstrate that transient semantic activation is sufficient to impact visual attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chiu (1972) reported that in a categorization task, Chinese children were more likely to categorize objects based on shared relationships, whereas American children were more likely to categorize objects based on similarity. This research examines whether such findings generalize to adults and whether cultural differences would also be observed in the activation of semantic concepts. In Experiment 1, Chinese adults were equally likely to categorize based on relationships and similarity, whereas Western adults were more likely to categorize based on similarity. Analogous differences in response latencies were observed in a timed task that reflected semantic processing in Experiment 2, and to some extent in a slightly different task in Experiment 3, although differences between the two experiments suggest that the nature of the categorization task determines the extent to which cultural differences are observed. Overall, results suggest that differences in categorization styles are associated with differences in semantic activation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Joke comprehension deficits in patients with right hemisphere (RH) damage raise the question of the role of the intact RH in understanding jokes. One suggestion is that semantic, or meaning, activations are different in the RH and LH, and RH meanings are particularly important for joke comprehension. To assess whether hypothesized differences in semantic activation in the two hemispheres were relevant to joke comprehension, we recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as healthy adults read laterally presented “punch words” to one-line jokes and nonjoke controls. Jokes presented to the RVF/LH elicited larger amplitude N400 than the nonjoke endings; when presented to the LVF/RH, the joke and nonjoke endings elicited N400s of equal amplitude. This finding suggests that semantic activations in the two hemispheres do differ, with RH semantic activation facilitating joke comprehension. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In a group of heavy smokers, overnight abstinence from smoking facilitated the perception of briefly presented smoking words. Subjects in the nicotineabstinent condition accurately identified significantly more smoking-related words than food-related or neutral words. However, a group tested in a non-abstinent condition showed no significant differences in ability to identify the three different word types. Smokers deprived of cigarettes were also significantly better able to categorize smoking words than non-abstinent subjects. These results demonstrate an abstinence-based facilitation of processing smoking-related stimuli at the semantic level, consistent with the hypothesis that smoking-related concepts are activated, or primed, during deprivation from nicotine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adult, male smokers were randomly assigned to be nicotine abstinent for 12 h ( n=10) or to smoke normally for the same period of time ( n=10). Performance on a modified version of the Stroop (1935) color-naming task, where subjects named the color of ink in which each of a series of words was written, showed that abstinent smokers took significantly longer to color-name words related to cigarette smoking (e.g., Lighter) than to color-name neutral control words (e.g., Pennant). Non-abstinent smokers showed a significant difference in the opposite direction. These results suggest that nicotine abstinence decreases the ability to ignore the meaning of smoking-related information. This finding supports the hypothesis that abstinence produces a content-specific shift in attentional focus. The present pattern of results cannot be explained by a general decrease in cognitive function due to nicotine abstinence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]