TY - JOUR
T1 - Concurrent semantic priming and lexical interference for close semantic relations in blocked-cyclic picture naming
T2 - Electrophysiological signatures
AU - Lin, Hsin-Pei
AU - Kuhlen, Anna K.
AU - Melinger, Alissa
AU - Aristei, Sabrina
AU - Abdel Rahman, Rasha
N1 - This study was supported by scholarship provided to H. L. by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) and by grant AB277/4 to RAR by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
© 2021 The Authors. Psychophysiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Psychophysiological Research.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - In the present study, we employed event-related brain potentials to investigate the effects of semantic similarity on different planning stages during language production. We manipulated semantic similarity by controlling feature overlap within taxonomical hierarchies. In a blocked-cyclic naming task, participants named pictures in repeated cycles, blocked in semantically close, distant, or unrelated conditions. Only closely related items, but not distantly related items, induced semantic blocking effects. In the first presentation cycle, naming was facilitated, and amplitude modulations in the N1 component around 140-180 ms post-stimulus onset predicted this behavioral facilitation. In contrast, in later cycles, naming was delayed, and a negative-going posterior amplitude modulation around 250-350 ms post-stimulus onset predicted this interference. These findings indicate easier object recognition or identification underlying initial facilitation and increased difficulties during lexical selection. The N1 modulation was reduced but persisted in later cycles in which interference dominated, and the posterior negativity was also present in cycle 1 in which facilitation dominated, demonstrating concurrent effects of conceptual priming and lexical interference in all naming cycles. Our assumptions about the functional role these two opposing forces play in producing semantic context effects are further supported by the finding that the joint modulation of these two ERPs on naming latency exclusively emerged when naming closely related, but not unrelated items. The current findings demonstrate that close relations, but not distant taxonomic relations, induce stronger semantic blocking effects, and that temporally overlapping electrophysiological signatures reflect a trade-off between facilitatory priming and interfering lexical competition.
AB - In the present study, we employed event-related brain potentials to investigate the effects of semantic similarity on different planning stages during language production. We manipulated semantic similarity by controlling feature overlap within taxonomical hierarchies. In a blocked-cyclic naming task, participants named pictures in repeated cycles, blocked in semantically close, distant, or unrelated conditions. Only closely related items, but not distantly related items, induced semantic blocking effects. In the first presentation cycle, naming was facilitated, and amplitude modulations in the N1 component around 140-180 ms post-stimulus onset predicted this behavioral facilitation. In contrast, in later cycles, naming was delayed, and a negative-going posterior amplitude modulation around 250-350 ms post-stimulus onset predicted this interference. These findings indicate easier object recognition or identification underlying initial facilitation and increased difficulties during lexical selection. The N1 modulation was reduced but persisted in later cycles in which interference dominated, and the posterior negativity was also present in cycle 1 in which facilitation dominated, demonstrating concurrent effects of conceptual priming and lexical interference in all naming cycles. Our assumptions about the functional role these two opposing forces play in producing semantic context effects are further supported by the finding that the joint modulation of these two ERPs on naming latency exclusively emerged when naming closely related, but not unrelated items. The current findings demonstrate that close relations, but not distant taxonomic relations, induce stronger semantic blocking effects, and that temporally overlapping electrophysiological signatures reflect a trade-off between facilitatory priming and interfering lexical competition.
KW - blocked-cyclic picture naming
KW - EEG
KW - lexical selection
KW - semantic facilitation/interference
KW - semantic similarity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121456021&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/psyp.13990
DO - 10.1111/psyp.13990
M3 - Article
C2 - 34931331
SN - 0048-5772
VL - 59
JO - Psychophysiology
JF - Psychophysiology
IS - 4
M1 - e13990
ER -