Effects of speed of word processing on semantic access: the case of bilingualism

Bilingual speakers generally manifest slower word recognition than monolinguals. We investigated the consequences of the word processing speed on semantic access in bilinguals. The paradigm involved a stream of English words and pseudowords presented in succession at a constant rate. English-Welsh bilinguals and English monolinguals were asked to count the number of letters in pseudowords and actively disregard words. They were not explicitly told that pairs of words in immediate succession were embedded and could either be semantically related or not. We expected that slower word processing in bilinguals would result in semantic access indexed by semantic priming. As expected, bilinguals showed significant semantic priming, indexed by an N400 modulation, whilst monolinguals did not. Moreover, bilinguals were slower in performing the task. The results suggest that bilinguals cannot discriminate between pseudowords and words without accessing semantic information whereas monolinguals can dismiss English words on the basis of subsemantic information.     

Past,present, and prospects: Reflections 40 years on from the selective impairment of semantic memory (Warrington, 1975)

We summarize the main findings and conclusions of Warrington's (1975) paper, The Selective Impairment of Semantic memory, a neuropsychological paper that described three cases with degenerative neurological conditions [Warrington, E. K. (1975). The selective impairment of semantic memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 27, 635–657]. We consider the developments that have followed from its publication and give a selective overview of the field in 2014. The initial impact of the paper was on neuropsychological investigations of semantic loss followed some 14 years later by the identification of Semantic Dementia (the condition shown by the original cases) as a distinctive form of degenerative disease with unique clinical and pathological characteristics. We discuss the distinction between disorders of semantic storage and refractory semantic access, the evidence for category- and modality-specific impairments of semantics, and the light that has been shed on the structure and organization of semantic memory. Finally we consider the relationship between semantic memory and the skills of reading and writing, phonological processing, and autobiographical memory.     

Contexts and control operations used in accessing list-specific, generalized, and semantic memories

The human ability to focus memory retrieval operations on a particular list, episode or memory structure has not been fully appreciated or documented. In Experiment 1-3, we make it increasingly difficult for participants to switch between a less recent list (multiple study opportunities), and a more recent list (single study opportunity). Task performance was good, although there was a cost associated with switching. In Experiment 4, list-specific learning experiences were used to create a generalized memory as a step towards semantic memory. List-specific memories intruded during attempts to retrieve the generalized memory and the generalized memory enhanced list-specific performance. The generalized memory also intruded in a free-association task. We propose that a hierarchy of contexts and control operations underlie the human ability to access different memory structures and that there is no sharp discontinuity in the control operations needed to access list-specific, generalized, and semantic memories.     

Cumulative and non-cumulative semantic interference in object naming: Evidence from blocked and continuous manipulations of semantic context

Experiments involving blocked and continuous manipulations of the semantic naming context demonstrate that, when speakers name several taxonomically related objects in close succession, they display persistent interference effects. A review of studies using the blocked paradigm shows that, unlike the continuous paradigm, it typically does not induce cumulative interference effects in healthy speakers. This contrasts with the simulation results obtained from a model of semantic context effects recently put forward by Oppenheim and colleagues [Oppenheim, G. M., Dell, G. S., & Schwartz, M. F. (2010). The dark side of incremental learning: A model of cumulative semantic interference during lexical access in speech production. Cognition, 114, 227--262], which generates cumulative effects in both paradigms. We propose that the effects are non-cumulative in the blocked paradigm, because it allows participants to bias top-down the levels of activation of lexical-semantic representations, thereby curtailing the accumulating interference. Indeed, prior research has shown that the interference effects in the blocked paradigm are exacerbated when participants carry out a concurrent digit-retention task, loading on working memory and reducing their capacity to exert a top-down bias. In Experiment 1, combining the continuous paradigm with a digit-retention task, we demonstrate that this does not exacerbate cumulative context effects, corroborating the selective role of working memory and the associated top-down biasing mechanism in the blocked paradigm. A review of neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies demonstrates that left inferior frontal regions may play a critical role in controlling semantic interference top-down. We discuss the implications of these findings for language production research and for models of lexical-semantic encoding.     

Out of one's mind: a study of involuntary semantic memories

The study of memories that pop into one's mind without any conscious attempt to retrieve them began only recently. While there are some studies on involuntary autobiographical memories (e.g., ) research on involuntary semantic memories or mind-popping is virtually non-existent. The latter is defined as an involuntary conscious occurrence of brief items of one's network of semantic knowledge. The recall of these items (e.g., a word, a name, a tune) is not accompanied by additional contextual information and/or involvement of self-a standard feature of involuntary autobiographical memories. The paper reports several diary and questionnaire studies which looked into the nature and frequency of occurrence of these memories. The data show that people do experience involuntary semantic memories which tend to occur without any apparent cues while being engaged in relatively automatic activities. Possible mechanisms of involuntary semantic memories are discussed (e.g., very long-term priming), and the results of the study provide information on the possible duration of the priming effects in everyday life. Related theoretical and methodological issues and future avenues of research in this neglected area are outlined.     

The effects of gender on the retrieval of episodic and semantic components of autobiographical memory

Despite consistent evidence that women exhibit greater episodic memory specificity than men, little attention has been paid to gender differences in the production of episodic details during autobiographical recall under conditions of high and low retrieval support. Similarly the role of gender on the production of semantic details used to support autobiographical memory recollections of specific events has been largely unexplored. In the present study an undergraduate sample of 50 men and 50 women were assessed using the Autobiographical Interview (Levine, Svoboda, Hay, Winocur, & Moscovitch, 2002). Women recalled more episodic information compared to men in the high retrieval support condition, whereas no gender differences were found in the low retrieval support condition. In addition, women produced more repetitions compared to men in the high retrieval support condition. No gender differences were found in the production of semantic details. These results are interpreted in terms of gender differences in encoding and reminiscence practices. This research adds to the literature on gender differences in memory recall and suggests that gender is an important variable in explaining individual differences in AM recall.     

Regional differences in the listener's phonemic inventory affect semantic processing: A mismatch negativity (MMN) study

Using the mismatch negativity (MMN) response, we examined how Standard French and Southern French speakers access the meaning of words ending in /e/ or /ε/ vowels which are contrastive in Standard French but not in Southern French. In Standard French speakers, there was a significant difference in the amplitude of the brain response after the deviant-minus-standard subtraction between the frontocentral (FC) and right lateral (RL) recording sites for the final-/ε/ word but not the final-/e/ word. In contrast, the difference in the amplitude of the brain response between the FC and RL recording sites did not significantly vary as a function of the word’s final vowel in Southern French speakers. Our findings provide evidence that access to lexical meaning in spoken word recognition depends on the speaker’s native regional accent.     

Semantic Memory Search and Retrieval in a Novel Cooperative Word Game: A Comparison of Associative and Distributional Semantic Models

Considerable work during the past two decades has focused on modeling the structure of semantic memory, although the performance of these models in complex and unconstrained semantic tasks remains relatively understudied. We introduce a two-player cooperative word game, Connector (based on the boardgame Codenames), and investigate whether similarity metrics derived from two large databases of human free association norms, the University of South Florida norms and the Small World of Words norms, and two distributional semantic models based on large language corpora (word2vec and GloVe) predict performance in this game. Participant dyads were presented with 20-item word boards with word pairs of varying relatedness. The speaker received a word pair from the board (e.g., exam-algebra) and generated a one-word semantic clue (e.g., math), which was used by the guesser to identify the word pair on the board across three attempts. Response times to generate the clue, as well as accuracy and latencies for the guessed word pair, were strongly predicted by the cosine similarity between word pairs and clues in random walk-based associative models, and to a lesser degree by the distributional models, suggesting that conceptual representations activated during free association were better able to capture search and retrieval processes in the game. Further, the speaker adjusted subsequent clues based on the first attempt by the guesser, who in turn benefited from the adjustment in clues, suggesting a cooperative influence in the game that was effectively captured by both associative and distributional models. These results indicate that both associative and distributional models can capture relatively unconstrained search processes in a cooperative game setting, and Connector is particularly suited to examine communication and semantic search processes.     

The effect of working memory load on semantic illusions: What the phonological loop and central executive have to contribute

When asked how many animals of each kind Moses took on the Ark, most people respond with “two” despite the substituted name (Moses for Noah) in the question. Possible explanations for semantic illusions appear to be related to processing limitations such as those of working memory. Indeed, individual working memory capacity has an impact upon how sentences containing substitutions are processed. This experiment examined further the role of working memory in the occurrence of semantic illusions using a dual-task working memory load approach. Participants verified statements while engaging in either articulatory suppression or random number generation. Secondary task type had a significant effect on semantic illusion rate, but only when comparing the control condition to the two dual-task conditions. Furthermore, secondary task performance in the random number generation condition declined, suggesting a tradeoff between tasks. Response time analyses also showed a different pattern of processing across the conditions. The findings suggest that the phonological loop plays a role in representing semantic illusion sentences coherently and in monitoring for details, while the role of the central executive is to assist gist-processing of sentences. This usually efficient strategy leads to error in the case of semantic illusions.     

Age invariance in semantic and episodic metamemory: Both younger and older adults provide accurate feeling-of-knowing for names of faces

Age differences in feeling-of-knowing (FOK) accuracy were examined for both episodic memory and semantic memory. Younger and older adults either viewed pictures of famous faces (semantic memory) or associated non-famous faces and names (episodic memory) and were tested on their memory for the name of the presented face. Participants viewed the faces again and made a FOK prediction about future recognition of the name associated with the presented face. Finally, four-alternative forced-choice recognition memory for the name, cued by the face, was tested and confidence judgments (CJs) were collected for each recognition response. Age differences were not obtained in semantic memory or the resolution of semantic FOKs, defined by within-person correlations of FOKs with recognition memory performance. Although age differences were obtained in level of episodic memory, there were no age differences in the resolution of episodic FOKs. FOKs for correctly recognized items correlated reliably with CJs for both types of materials, and did not differ by age group. The results indicate age invariance in monitoring of retrieval processes for name–face associations.     

基于语义网络的创造性认知机制研究现状与展望

语义网络是主要的知识表征方式之一,对创造性研究具有重要意义。近年来不断发展的网络科学方法为相关研究提供了强大的方法论框架及量化工具,研究者得以分别从语义网络结构及语义相关认知操作的角度探讨语义网络与创造性的内在联系。已有证据表明语义网络中所储存的概念越丰富、概念间的连接通路越多元化或越灵活,则个体创造性水平越高;而个体创造性水平亦受制于个体对概念的检索、抑制、选择、整合及扩展等认知能力。在此方向上,未来研究工作应当更多地思考如何在一个相对整合的认知框架中深入探讨语义网络结构及相关认知过程对创造性的交互作用,并结合神经影像等技术手段,将语义网络之于创造性的认知机制嵌套于神经科学体系中进行解释。     

The influence of speech rate and accent on access and use of semantic information

Circumstances in which the speech input is presented in sub-optimal conditions generally lead to processing costs affecting spoken word recognition. The current study indicates that some processing demands imposed by listening to difficult speech can be mitigated by feedback from semantic knowledge. A set of lexical decision experiments examined how foreign accented speech and word duration impact access to semantic knowledge in spoken word recognition. Results indicate that when listeners process accented speech, the reliance on semantic information increases. Speech rate was not observed to influence semantic access, except in the setting in which unusually slow accented speech was presented. These findings support interactive activation models of spoken word recognition in which attention is modulated based on speech demands.     

Motivated semantic control: Exploring the effects of extrinsic reward and self-reference on semantic retrieval in semantic aphasia

Recent insights show that increased motivation can benefit executive control, but this effect has not been explored in relation to semantic cognition. Patients with deficits of controlled semantic retrieval in the context of semantic aphasia (SA) after stroke may benefit from this approach since ‘semantic control’ is considered an executive process. Deficits in this domain are partially distinct from the domain-general deficits of cognitive control. We assessed the effect of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in healthy controls and SA patients. Experiment 1 manipulated extrinsic reward using high or low levels of points for correct responses during a semantic association task. Experiment 2 manipulated the intrinsic value of items using self-reference, allocating pictures of items to the participant (‘self’) or researcher (‘other’) in a shopping game before participants retrieved their semantic associations. These experiments revealed that patients, but not controls, showed better performance when given an extrinsic reward, consistent with the view that increased external motivation may help ameliorate patients’ semantic control deficits. However, while self-reference was associated with better episodic memory, there was no effect on semantic retrieval. We conclude that semantic control deficits can be reduced when extrinsic rewards are anticipated; this enhanced motivational state is expected to support proactive control, for example, through the maintenance of task representations. It may be possible to harness this modulatory impact of reward to combat the control demands of semantic tasks in SA patients.     

Category size effects revisited: frequency and masked priming effects in semantic categorization

Previous work indicates that semantic categorization decisions for nonexemplars (e.g., deciding that TURBAN is not an animal name) are faster for high-frequency words than low-frequency words. However, there is evidence that this result might depend on category size. When narrow categories are used (e.g., Months, Numbers), there is no frequency effect for nonexemplars. This result is confirmed, and is explained in terms of a category search model, which allows a "No" decision to be generated without access to the lexical entry for the target word. This explains the absence of a frequency effect, but not the presence of a strong masked repetition priming effect, which is assumed to have a lexical source. It is shown that this effect may not be lexical, since nonwords also show similar priming. Both of these priming effects disappear when a larger category is used. This pattern of results is explained on the assumption that category search is only possible with small categories, and that tentative category decisions are generated for the unconsciously perceived prime, which leads to a marked response congruence effect.     

A dissociation between the sense of familiarity and access to semantic information concerning familiar people

In the current study we examined the relationship between working memory capacity, inhibition/susceptibility to interference and fluid intelligence, measured by the Raven's Progressive Matrices (PM38), comparing groups of young (aged 18–35), young-old (aged 65–74), and old-old (aged 75–86) participants. Groups were administered two working memory tasks tapping into different mechanisms involved in working memory. The ability to control for irrelevant information was measured both considering memory errors (intrusion errors) in a working memory task and an index of susceptibility to interference obtained with a variant of the Brown-Peterson task. Regression analyses showed that the classical working memory measure was the most potent predictors of the Raven's score. Susceptibility to interference and intrusions errors contributed, but to a lower extent, to the Raven explained variance. These results confirm that working memory shares cognitive aspects with the fluid intelligence measure considered, whereas the role of inhibition to Raven scores is still in need of better evidence.     

Nature and facts about natural and artifactual categories: Sex differences in the semantic priming paradigm

There is abundant evidence from behavioral and neurophysiological experiments for the distinction of natural versus artifactual categories and a gender-specific difference: women’s performances in cognitive tasks increase when natural categories are used, whereas men’s performances increase with artifactual categories. Here, we used the semantic priming paradigm to study retrieval processes by presenting category labels as primes and exemplars as targets. Overall, in two experiments we found larger priming effects for natural than for artifactual categories. In addition, females showed positive priming effects for natural but negative effects for artifactual categories, whereas males showed positive priming effects for both categories. This pattern matches with that from other tasks and can be interpreted as evidence that the findings from these other tasks are, at least partially, indeed due to different representations or processing modes for males and females and not (exclusively) due to—for example—different familiarity with a category. In a further experiment, we showed that the found pattern for females can be manipulated by focusing on perceptual vs. functional features. The results can be interpreted as first evidence that there are (eventually in addition to different “crystallized” semantic structures) specific default processing modes that differ for males and females.     

The effects of late acquisition of L2 and the consequences of immigration on L1 for semantic and morpho-syntactic language aspects

It has been hypothesized that some aspects of a second language (L2) might be learned easier than others if a language is learned late. On the other hand, non-use might result in a loss of language skills in one's native, i.e. one's first language (L1) (language attrition). To study which, if any, aspects of language are affected by either late acquisition or non-use, long-term German immigrants to the US and English native speakers who are long-term immigrants to Germany as well as two additional control groups of native German speakers were tested with an auditory semantic and morpho-syntactic priming paradigm. German adjectives correctly or incorrectly inflected for gender and semantically associated or not associated with the target noun served as primes. Participants made a lexical decision on the target word. All groups of native German speakers gained from semantically and morpho-syntactically congruent primes. Evidence for language attrition was neither found for semantic nor morpho-syntactic priming effects in the German immigrants. In contrast, English native speakers did not gain from a morpho-syntactic congruent prime, whereas semantic priming effects were similar as for the remaining groups. The present data suggest that the full acquisition of at least some syntactic functions may be restricted to limited periods in life while semantic and morpho-syntactic functions seem to be relatively inured to loss due to non-use.     

Attention and semantic processing during speech: an fMRI study

This fMRI study was conducted to investigate whether language semantics is processed even when attention is not explicitly directed to word meanings. In the “unattended” condition, the subjects performed a visual detection task while hearing semantically related and unrelated word pairs. In the “phoneme” condition, the subjects made phoneme judgements between prime and target words, and in the “word” condition, they indicated whether the words in each word pair were semantically related or unrelated. In the word condition, stronger activity was obtained for unrelated than related words in the superior temporal gyrus/sulcus (STG/STS), lingual/fusiform gyri and cuneus, whereas in the phoneme condition no such effect was observed. However, during the unattended condition, stronger activity was found in the right STG. Our results suggest that both semantic judgement of word pairs and their passive hearing activate the same neural networks but this activation is more restricted in the passive hearing.     

The effects of marital status on episodic and semantic memory in healthy middle-aged and old individuals

The present study examined the influences of marital status on different episodic and semantic memory tasks. A total of 1882 adult men and women participated in a longitudinal project (Betula) on memory, health and aging. The participants were grouped into two age cohorts, 35-60 and 65-85, and studied over a period of 5 years. Episodic memory tasks concerned recognition and recall, whereas semantic memory tasks concerned knowledge and fluency. The results showed, after controlling for education, some diseases, chronological age and leisure activity as covariates, that there were significant differences between married and single individuals in episodic memory, but not in semantic memory. Married people showed significantly better memory performances than singles in both subsystems of episodic memory, that is, recall and recognition. Also, the rate of decline in episodic memory was significantly larger for singles and widowed than other groups over the 5-year time period in both age groups. The findings demonstrate that the positive relation found between marriage and health can be extended to the relation between marriage and cognitive performance. This effect might be explained by the role played by cognitive stimulation in memory and cognition.     

新颖性寻求对创造性行为表现的影响：语义网络的中介作用

研究采用物品多用途任务、中文复合远距离联想任务和汉语双字词词对相关性判断任务,考察新颖性寻求特质水平对创造性表现的影响,探明语义网络在其中的作用。结果发现：高新颖性寻求个体在物品多用途任务中有更高的新颖性得分,而在中文复合远距离联想任务中与低新颖性寻求个体表现一致;在低相关词对判断时,高新颖性寻求个体反应时更短;低相关词对的判断反应时在新颖性寻求对创造性行为表现的影响中起部分中介作用。结果预示,新颖性寻求特质有利于个体建构形成能快速激活远距离信息的语义网络,进而促进创造性行为表现。