影响动作图片命名的因素

图片是研究词汇习得与加工的重要材料, 而名词和动词是最主要的两类实词。然而, 目前较少有研究考察汉语中的动词加工过程, 也没有标准化的动词图片库。本研究通过成人图片命名和评定任务, 获得了265张动词图片的中文名称、命名反应时, 以及H值、命名一致性、熟悉性、视觉复杂性、表象一致性和口语习得年龄等指标, 同时也探索了影响动作图片命名反应时的因素。逐步回归分析结果发现, H值、熟悉性和视觉复杂性这三个变量可解释动词图片命名反应时72.4%的变异。此外, 本研究根据图片命名反应时将动词图片加工难度分成了五个等级。研究发现, 与名词图片相比, 动词图片的视觉复杂性更高、命名一致性更低、命名反应时更长。本研究获得的各项心理语言学指标有望为后续关于动词加工的实验研究提供重要的参考资料。     

习得年龄对客体和动作图画口语命名的不同影响：ERP研究

词汇习得年龄指人们最早理解单词意义时的年龄, 已有研究发现早习得词汇的阅读反应时间短于晚习得词汇, 研究者对于词汇习得年龄效应的认知机制存在争论。本研究运用事件相关电位技术, 考察了词汇习得年龄(早与晚)对客体图画和动作图画命名的影响。研究中采用图画命名任务, 要求被试在看到图画后迅速且准确地说出图画名称。结果发现早习得名词的命名快于晚习得名词, 而早习得动词的命名却慢于晚习得动词; 习得年龄对于名词产生的影响发生在图画呈现后的250~300 ms之间, 表现为早习得名词波幅小于晚习得名词, 而习得年龄对于动词产生的影响发生在图画呈现后的200~600 ms之间, 表现为早习得动词波幅大于晚习得动词。这表明名词产生中的习得年龄效应发生在词汇选择阶段, 支持了语义假设的观点; 动词产生过程中的习得年龄效应出现在多个加工阶段, 包括了词汇选择、音韵编码和语音编码阶段, 这与动词语义的多重性及其与动作相关的脑区激活有关, 支持了网络可塑性假说的观点。     

Integrating pictorial information across eye movements

Six experiments are reported dealing with the types of information integrated across eye movements in picture perception. A line drawing of an object was presented in peripheral vision, and subjects made an eye movement to it. During the saccade, the initially presented picture was replaced by another picture that the subject was instructed to name as quickly as possible. The relation between the stimulus on the first fixation and the stimulus on the second fixation was varied. Across the six experiments, there was about 100-130 ms facilitation when the pictures were identical compared with a control condition in which only the target location was specified on the first fixation. This finding clearly implies that information about the first picture facilitated naming the second picture. Changing the size of the picture from one fixation to the next had little effect on naming time. This result is consistent with work on reading and low-level visual processes in indicating that pictorial information is not integrated in a point-by-point manner in an integrated visual buffer. Moreover, only about 50 ms of the facilitation for identical pictures could be attributed to the pictures having the same name. When the pictures represented the same concept (e.g., two different pictures of a horse), there was a 90-ms facilitation effect that could have been the result of either the visual or conceptual similarity of the pictures. However, when the pictures had different names, only visual similarity produced facilitation. Moreover, when the pictures had different names, there appeared to be inhibition from the competing names. The results of all six experiments are consistent with a model in which the activation of both the visual features and the name of the picture seen on the first fixation survive the saccade and combine with the information extracted on the second fixation to produce identification and naming of the second picture.     

Perceptual processing of natural scenes at rapid rates: Effects of complexity, content, and emotional arousal

During rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), the perceptual system is confronted with a rapidly changing array of sensory information demanding resolution. At rapid rates of presentation, previous studies have found an early (e.g., 150–280 ms) negativity over occipital sensors that is enhanced when emotional, as compared with neutral, pictures are viewed, suggesting facilitated perception. In the present study, we explored how picture composition and the presence of people in the image affect perceptual processing of pictures of natural scenes. Using RSVP, pictures that differed in perceptual composition (figure–ground or scenes), content (presence of people or not), and emotional content (emotionally arousing or neutral) were presented in a continuous stream for 330 ms each with no intertrial interval. In both subject and picture analyses, all three variables affected the amplitude of occipital negativity, with the greatest enhancement for figure–ground compositions (as compared with scenes), irrespective of content and emotional arousal, supporting an interpretation that ease of perceptual processing is associated with enhanced occipital negativity. Viewing emotional pictures prompted enhanced negativity only for pictures that depicted people, suggesting that specific features of emotionally arousing images are associated with facilitated perceptual processing, rather than all emotional content.     

语义相似性与类别大小对图-词干扰范式下语义效应的影响

采用基本水平命名和类别水平命名任务, 通过2个实验, 考察了图-词之间的语义相似性与类别大小对图-词干扰范式下语义效应的影响。实验1发现, 图片命名时间在语义相似性高的干扰词条件下显著快于在语义相似性低的干扰词条件下, 但这种效应只出现在基本水平命名任务中, 未出现在类别水平命名任务中。图-词之间的语义相似性高低对低熟悉图片命名影响大, 对高熟悉图片命名影响小。实验2显示, 语义关联的干扰词对图片的基本水平命名产生了语义干扰效应, 对图片的类别水平命名产生了语义促进效应。类别大小强化了语义效应：类别大, 图片的基本水平命名的语义干扰效应更大, 图片的类别水平命名的语义促进效应更强。整个研究表明, 图-词之间的语义关联的强度影响语义效应的方向, 图-词之间的语义关联的广度影响语义效应的强弱。需要结合多种理论来解释图-词之间的语义相似性和类别大小对图-词干扰范式下语义效应的影响。     

Semantic interference in a delayed naming task: evidence for the response exclusion hypothesis

In 2 experiments participants named pictures of common objects with superimposed distractor words. In one naming condition, the pictures and words were presented simultaneously on every trial, and participants produced the target response immediately. In the other naming condition, the presentation of the picture preceded the presentation of the distractor by 1,000 ms, and participants delayed production of their naming response until distractor word presentation. Within each naming condition, the distractor words were either semantic category coordinates of the target pictures or unrelated. Orthogonal to this manipulation of semantic relatedness, the frequency of the pictures' names was manipulated. The authors observed semantic interference effects in both the immediate and delayed naming conditions but a frequency effect only in the immediate naming condition. These data indicate that semantic interference can be observed when target picture naming latencies do not reflect the bottleneck at the level of lexical selection. In the context of other findings from the picture-word interference paradigm, the authors interpret these data as supporting the view that the semantic interference effect arises at a postlexical level of processing.     

影响图画命名时间的因素

实验共测量了311张图片的H值、命名一致性百分数、概念一致性百分数、表象一致性、熟悉性、视觉复杂性、词长和图片命名的时间,主要探索影响图片命名潜伏期的因素,结果发现概念一致性、熟悉性、表象一致性、词频是影响图片命名时间的主要因素。并尝试建立了概念一致性、熟悉性、表象一致性和词频对图片命名时间的回归方程,其预测能力为55.5%。根据图片的命名时间对命名的难易程度进行了分级,希望能对利用图片作为实验材料的认知实验提供有价值的信息     

Task choice and semantic interference in picture naming

Evidence from dual-task performance indicates that speakers prefer not to select simultaneous responses in picture naming and another unrelated task, suggesting a response selection bottleneck in naming. In particular, when participants respond to tones with a manual response and name pictures with superimposed semantically related or unrelated distractor words, semantic interference in naming tends to be constant across stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the tone stimulus and the picture–word stimulus. In the present study, we examine whether semantic interference in picture naming depends on SOA in case of a task choice (naming the picture vs reading the word of a picture–word stimulus) based on tones. This situation requires concurrent processing of the tone stimulus and the picture–word stimulus, but not a manual response to the tones. On each trial, participants either named a picture or read aloud a word depending on the pitch of a tone, which was presented simultaneously with picture–word onset or 350 ms or 1000 ms before picture–word onset. Semantic interference was present with tone pre-exposure, but absent when tone and picture-word stimulus were presented simultaneously. Against the background of the available studies, these results support an account according to which speakers tend to avoid concurrent response selection, but can engage in other types of concurrent processing, such as task choices.     

言语产生过程中语义、语音激活的ERP研究

使用ERP技术考察了言语产生过程中语音和语义的激活情况。图片上有3种条件的干扰词,分别与目标图片名称形成3种关系:语义相关,语音相同,语义、语音、字形都不相关。结果显示,当被试执行延迟命名任务(实验1)时,与目标图片名称语义相关和控制条件的波形比语音相关的波形更趋于负向。说明在图片命名过程中语音有明显的促进作用。当要求被试对上述图片进行延迟语义判断任务(实验2)时,与目标图片名称语义相关、语音相关及控制条件的波形之间无明显差异。说明在语义提取过程中没有语音的促进作用。综合实验1和实验2,本研究的结果更倾向于支持独立两阶段模型。     

Age of acquisition and name agreement as predictors of mean response latencies in picture naming of French adults

We studied the influence of five variables on picture naming latencies in French adult subjects: frequency, age of acquisition and length of words, name agreement in oral naming, and visual complexity of pictures. 140 pictures were presented to 56 subjects with control of individual factors (age, educational level, gender). Naming latency was measured as the time from picture onset until keystroke corresponding to the begin of verbal production. The results of simple and multiple regression analyses show that only two variables make independent contributions to mean response latency: age of acquisition and name agreement. Such state of affairs confirms similar findings obtained with English speaking subjects.     

Two-year-olds use artist intention to understand drawings

Adults appreciate that an abstract visual representation can be understood through inferring the artist's intention. Many investigators have argued that this capacity is a late-emerging developmental accomplishment, a claim supported by findings that preschool children ignore explicit statements about intent when naming pictures. Using a simplified method, we explored picture naming in 2-year-olds. Experiment 1 found that when an adult artist drew an object, children later mapped a novel name for the drawing to the object that the adult had been looking at. Experiment 2 suggests that this response was not merely because there was more attention given to that object. These findings are consistent with the view that children are naturally disposed to reason about artifacts, including artwork, in terms of inferred intention.     

Right-hemisphere interactions in picture-word processing

The processing of pictures was investigated in three experiments which eliminated the response effects involved in naming. When a categorization task was used, clear advantages in response latency and accuracy were observed for left visual-field (LVF) presentations. This was in contrast to previous investigations which have used a naming task and which have reported right visual-field (RVF) advantages. When a distracting word was added to the display, the pattern of influence also changed from that reported previously. The use of naming tasks has indicated predominantly left-hemisphere effects, with demonstrations of interactions between pictures and words in the RVF. With a categorization task in Experiment 2, however, the only effective words were those related in meaning to the picture, and only when they were projected to the right hemisphere. The third experiment confirmed the LVF advantage for picture processing with masked displays, but found no reliable asymmetry with unmasked presentations. The pattern of semantic facilitation was also confirmed with the masked displays, but when the mask was removed an inhibition effect replaced the facilitation effect. These effects are interpreted as indicating that picture recognition is localized within the right cerebral hemisphere. It is suggested that the facilitating effect of related words is restricted to the left hemisphere because it is an effect upon recognition processes, whereas the inhibition effect reflects response competition. It is also suggested that previous reports of left-hemisphere interference effects are due to effects of response competition in naming tasks.     

Selective attention affects implicit and explicit memory for familiar pictures at different delay conditions

Three experiments investigated the effects of two variables -selective attention during encoding and delay between study and test- on implicit (picture fragment completion and object naming) and explicit (free recall and recognition) memory tests. Experiments 1 and 2 consistently indicated that (a) at all delays (immediate to 1 month), picture-fragment identification threshold was lower for the attended than the unattended pictures; (b) the attended pictures were recalled and recognized better than the unattended; and (c) attention and delay interacted in both memory tests. For implicit memory, performance decreased as delay increased for both attended and unattended pictures, but priming was more pronounced and lasted longer for the attended pictures; it was still present after a 1-month delay. For explicit memory, performance decreased as delay increased for attended pictures, but for unattended pictures performance was consistent throughout delay. By using a perceptual object naming task, Experiment 3 showed reliable implicit and explicit memory for attended but not for unattended pictures. This study indicates that picture repetition priming requires attention at the time of study and that neither delay nor attention dissociate performance in explicit and implicit memory tests; both types of memory require attention, but explicit memory does so to a larger degree.     

Perceptual differentiation as a source of category effects in object processing: Evidence from naming and object decision

The locus of category effects in picture recognition and naming was examined in two experiments with normal subjects. Subjects carried out object decision (deciding whether the stimulus is a “real” object or not) and naming tasks with pictures of clothing, furniture, fruit, and vegetables. These categories are distinguished by containing either relatively many exemplars with similar perceptual structures (fruit and vegetables;structurally similar categories), or relatively few exemplars with similar perceptual structures (clothing and furniture;structurally dissimilar categories). In Experiment 1, responses to the stimuli from the structurally similar categories were slower than responses to stimuli from the structurally dissimilar categories, and this effect was larger in the naming than in the object decision task. Further, prior object decisions to stimuli from structurally similar categories facilitated their subsequent naming. In Experiment 2, we orthogonally manipulated object decision and naming as prime and target tasks, again with stimuli from the four categories. Category effects, with responses slower to objects from structurally similar categories, were again larger in naming than in object decision, and these category effects in naming were reduced by priming with both naming and object decision. We interpret the data to indicate that category effects in object naming can reflect visually based competition which is reduced by the preactivation of stored structural knowledge for objects.     

A funny thing happened on the way to articulation: N400 attenuation despite behavioral interference in picture naming

We measured Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) and naming times to picture targets preceded by masked words (stimulus onset asynchrony: 80 ms) that shared one of three different types of relationship with the names of the pictures: (1) Identity related, in which the prime was the name of the picture ("socks" - ), (2) Phonemic Onset related, in which the initial segment of the prime was the same as the name of the picture ("log" - ), and (3) Semantically related in which the prime was a co-category exemplar and associated with the name of the picture ("cake" - ). Each type of related picture target was contrasted with an Unrelated picture target, resulting in a 3×2 design that crossed Relationship Type between the word and the target picture (Identity, Phonemic Onset and Semantic) with Relatedness (Related and Unrelated). Modulation of the N400 component to related (versus unrelated) pictures was taken to reflect semantic processing at the interface between the picture's conceptual features and its lemma, while naming times reflected the end product of all stages of processing. Both attenuation of the N400 and shorter naming times were observed to pictures preceded by Identity related (versus Unrelated) words. No ERP effects within 600 ms, but shorter naming times, were observed to pictures preceded by Phonemic Onset related (versus Unrelated) words. An attenuated N400 (electrophysiological semantic priming) but longer naming times (behavioral semantic interference) were observed to pictures preceded by Semantically related (versus Unrelated) words. These dissociations between ERP modulation and naming times suggest that (a) phonemic onset priming occurred late, during encoding of the articulatory response, and (b) semantic behavioral interference was not driven by competition at the lemma level of representation, but rather occurred at a later stage of production.     

The role of visual and semantic codes in object naming

Three experiments investigated the effects of familiarity, practice, and stimulus variability on naming latencies for photographs of objects. Latencies for pictures of objects having the same name decreased most with practice when the same picture was always used to represent a given object (Condition Ps-Ns), less if different views of the same object were used (Condition Pv-Ns), and least if pictures of different objects having the same name were used (Condition Pd-Ns). In all cases, however, the effect of practice was significant. The savings in naming latency associated with practice on Conditions Ps-Ns and Pv-Ns showed almost no transfer to condition Pd-Ns, even though the same responses were being given before and after transfer. However, practice on Condition Ps-Ns transferred completely to Condition Pv-Ns. Name frequency affected latency in all conditions. The frequency effect decreased slightly with practice.These results are related to several alternative models of the coding processes involved in naming objects. It is concluded that at least three types of representation may be necessary: visual codes, nonverbal semantic codes, and name codes. A distinction is made between visual codes that characterize two-dimensional stimuli and those that characterize three-dimensional objects.     

Crowded and sparse domains in object recognition: consequences for categorization and naming

Some models of object recognition propose that items from structurally crowded categories (e.g., living things) permit faster access to superordinate semantic information than structurally dissimilar categories (e.g., nonliving things), but slower access to individual object information when naming items. We present four experiments that utilize the same matched stimuli: two examine superordinate categorization and two examine picture naming. Experiments 1 and 2 required participants to sort pictures into their appropriate superordinate categories and both revealed faster categorization for living than nonliving things. Nonetheless, the living thing superiority disappeared when the atypical categories of body parts and musical instruments were excluded. Experiment 3 examined naming latency and found no difference between living and nonliving things. This finding was replicated in Experiment 4 where the same items were presented in different formats (e.g., color and line-drawn versions). Taken as a whole, these experiments show that the ease with which people categorize items maps strongly onto the ease with which they name them.     

Tracing attention and the activation flow of spoken word planning using eye movements

The flow of activation from concepts to phonological forms within the word production system was examined in 3 experiments. In Experiment 1, participants named pictures while ignoring superimposed distractor pictures that were semantically related, phonologically related, or unrelated. Eye movements and naming latencies were recorded. The distractor pictures affected the latencies of gaze shifting and vocal naming. The magnitude of the phonological effects increased linearly with latency, excluding lapses of attention as the cause of the effects. In Experiment 2, no distractor effects were obtained when both pictures were named. When pictures with superimposed distractor words were named or the words were read in Experiment 3, the words influenced the latencies of gaze shifting and picture naming, but the pictures yielded no such latency effects in word reading. The picture-word asymmetry was obtained even with equivalent reading and naming latencies. The picture-picture effects suggest that activation spreads continuously from concepts to phonological forms, whereas the picture-word asymmetry indicates that the amount of activation is limited and task dependent.     

High negative valence does not protect emotional event-related potentials from spatial inattention and perceptual load

Previous research suggests that intense, emotional pictures at fixation elicit an early posterior negativity (EPN) and a late positive potential (LPP) despite manipulations of spatial inattention and perceptual load. However, if high emotional intensity protects against such manipulations, then these manipulations should reduce emotional effects on EPN and LPP more strongly for medium than for intense emotional pictures. To test this prediction, pictures that were high negative, medium negative, or neutral were shown at fixation, and a small letter string was superimposed on the picture center. When participants attended the pictures, there were clear emotional effects on EPN and LPP. When participants attended the letter string, the emotional effects on LPP decreased; this decrease was smaller for medium than for high negative pictures. Thus, opposite of predictions, spatial inattention reduced the emotional effects more strongly for high than for medium negative pictures. As a manipulation of perceptual load, participants performed the letter task with one, three, or six relevant letters. Irrespective of load, EPN and LPP were similar for high and medium negative pictures. Our findings suggest that high negative valence does not protect EPN and LPP more strongly from effects of spatial inattention and perceptual load than does medium negative valence.