Misrecollection prevents older adults from benefitting from semantic relatedness of the memoranda in associative memory

Memory for episodic associations declines in aging, ostensibly due to decreased recollection abilities. Accordingly, associative unitization - the encoding of associated items as one integrated entity - may potentially attenuate age-related associative deficits by enabling familiarity-based retrieval, which is relatively preserved in aging. To test this hypothesis, we induced bottom-up unitization by manipulating semantic relatedness between memoranda. Twenty-four young and 24 older adults studied pairs of object pictures that were either semantically related or unrelated. Participants subsequently discriminated between intact, recombined and new pairs. We found that semantic relatedness increased the contributions of both familiarity and recollection in young adults, but did not improve older adults' performance. Instead, they showed associative deficits, driven by increased recollection-based false recognition. This may reflect a “misrecollection” phenomenon, in which older adults make more false alarms to recombined pairs with particularly high confidence, due to poorer retrieval monitoring regarding semantically-related associative probes.     

Tool use in neurodegenerative diseases: Planning or technical reasoning?

Recent works showed that tool use can be impaired in stroke patients because of either planning or technical reasoning deficits, but these two hypotheses have not yet been compared in the field of neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study was to address the relationships between real tool use, mechanical problem‐solving, and planning skills in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD, n = 32), semantic dementia (SD, n = 16), and corticobasal syndrome (CBS, n = 9). Patients were asked to select and use ten common tools, to solve three mechanical problems, and to complete the Tower of London test. Motor function and episodic memory were controlled using the Purdue Pegboard Test and the BEC96 questionnaire, respectively. A data‐transformation method was applied to avoid ceiling effects, and single‐case analysis was performed based on raw scores and completion time. All groups demonstrated either impaired or slowed tool use. Planning deficits were found only in the AD group. Mechanical problem‐solving deficits were observed only in the AD and CBS groups. Performance in the Tower of London test was the best predictor of tool use skills in the AD group, suggesting these patients had general rather than mechanical problem‐solving deficits. Episodic memory seemed to play little role in performance. Motor dysfunction tended to be associated with tool use skills in CBS patients, while tool use disorders are interpreted as a consequence of the semantic loss in SD in line with previous works. These findings may encourage caregivers to set up disease‐centred interventions.     

图词间隔时间影响口语词汇产生中语义效应的机制：图词干扰范式研究

口语词汇产生过程中存在语义抑制和语义促进效应, 可能发生在概念准备和词汇选择或者后词汇水平阶段。本研究采用图画-词汇干扰实验任务, 变化图画与词汇出现点之间的时间间隔(stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA), 运用脑电技术考察口语词汇产生中语义效应发生的时间进程。结果显示, 当SOA为0 ms时表现出语义抑制效应, 语义效应发生在词汇选择阶段(344~418 ms); 当SOA为-400 ms时, 语义效应发生在概念准备阶段(0~76 ms)和词汇选择阶段(274~390 ms); 460~594 ms时间窗口内的语义效应可能表明讲话者对语义信息的自我监测。词汇产生中存在语义促进效应和抑制效应的权衡, 影响了行为结果中语义效应的方向, 上述发现支持了口语词汇产生的词汇竞争假说。     

语义关联性对重复知盲效应的影响：来自汉语成语的证据

重复知盲是在快速系列视觉呈现任务中对第二个重复刺激的加工缺陷。以汉语中反义字和成语为实验材料,采用全部报告任务,探讨刺激的语义关联性对重复知盲的影响。实验1以汉语单字为材料,采用单因素三水平（目标刺激之间的语义关系：无关、相同、相反）被试内设计,结果是重复字产生重复知盲效应,反义字产生语义启动效应。实验2以成语为材料,采用2（目标刺激之间的语义关系：相同、无关）×2（位置：前位置、后位置）设计,结果是语义关联性消解了重复知盲效应。结果表明：（1）反义字不产生重复知盲效应。（2）语义关联性消解成语中重复字的重复知盲效应。（3）实验结果支持竞争假设。     

汉语听觉词汇加工中声调信息对语义激活的制约作用

进行了三个跨通道启动词汇判断实验,探讨汉语听觉词汇加工中声调信息对语义激活的制约作用。实验一和二使用具有相同音段信息、但不同声调信息的双音节合成词（如“条约”和“跳跃”）作为听觉启动词,与其中一个词有语义关系的双字词作为视觉探测词。语义启动词与其配对的声调不匹配词在第一音节的声调、第二音节的声调、或两个声调上有所不同。实验三改变语义启动词的第一或第二音节的声调,以产生声调不匹配的假词启动项;实验三还同时变化了原来的声调与产生的声调之间的相似性。实验结果表明,声调不匹配的启动项目是否产生显著的启动效应取决于词汇竞争的环境、声调输入与深层声调表征之间匹配的程度,以及不匹配的声调所在的位置。文章从语音输入中的声调信息如何激活词汇表征、声调信息如何存储在心理词典中、声调对语义激活的制约作用如何受竞争环境的影响这三个方面讨论了研究的发现。     

No grammatical gender effect on affective ratings: evidence from Italian and German languages

In this study, we tested the linguistic relativity hypothesis by studying the effect of grammatical gender (feminine vs. masculine) on affective judgments of conceptual representation in Italian and German. In particular, we examined the within- and cross-language grammatical gender effect and its interaction with participants’ demographic characteristics (such as, the raters’ age and sex) on semantic differential scales (affective ratings of valence, arousal and dominance) in Italian and German speakers. We selected the stimuli and the relative affective measures from Italian and German adaptations of the ANEW (Affective Norms for English Words). Bayesian and frequentist analyses yielded evidence for the absence of within- and cross-languages effects of grammatical gender and sex- and age-dependent interactions. These results suggest that grammatical gender does not affect judgments of affective features of semantic representation in Italian and German speakers, since an overt coding of word grammar is not required. Although further research is recommended to refine the impact of the grammatical gender on properties of semantic representation, these results have implications for any strong view of the linguistic relativity hypothesis.     

具身模拟在汉语肢体动作动词理解中的作用

通过3个实验, 考察具身模拟在汉语肢体动作动词理解中的作用。实验1考察在整字启动下具身模拟对运动通道中箭头方向判断的影响, 发现理解肢体动作动词在运动通道中存在着动作-汉字相容效应, 汉字的具身方向与箭头方向一致促进被试对箭头方向的判断。实验2考察在整字启动下具身经验对视觉通道中字母位置判断的影响, 发现理解肢体动作动词在视觉通道中存在着动作-汉字相容效应, 汉字的具身方位与字母方位一致促进对字母方位的识别。实验3采用义符启动范式考察义符与整字的具身模拟, 发现理解汉语肢体动作动词不仅在整字层次上存在着具身模拟, 在部件层次上也存在着具身模拟。义符在汉字加工中期被激活了, 并且持续到加工晚期。整个研究表明, 汉语肢体动作动词理解是一个跨通道的具身模拟过程, 具身模拟在汉语肢体动作动词的理解中起着非常重要的作用。     

句子语境中语义联系启动作用的研究

通过对比研究正序和乱序两种句子语境对目标词加工的不同影响,来探讨句子语境中语义联系启动作用及作用点问题。实验一采用词汇命名任务研究发现,句法成分影响命名任务,句法违反对命名任务产生较大的抑制作用。语义违反则对命名任务没有产生显著的抑制作用。实验二利用词汇决定任务发现,词序影响决定任务,乱序对词汇决定产生很大的抑制作用。语义违反对决定任务地产生较大的抑制作用。结果表,中义联系启动是短暂的,它的保持和传递需要句法成分的支持。     

老年中国人自我记忆效应的研究

本研究用带R／K判断的再认范式考察了60岁和70岁两个年龄段的老年中国人的自我记忆效应,结果发现：老年人的记忆仍表现有自我参照效应,但60岁以上的老年中国被试中没有出现母亲参照加工的优势效应;60岁左右的老年人在自我参照加工、参照母亲加工、参照周恩来加工以及语义加工这四项任务中的再认成绩及R判断值都显著高于70岁的老年人,两组被试在K值上没有显著差异;老年人记忆成绩的下降主要体现在情景记忆中,语义记忆能力相对来说下降速度较慢。     

句子语境中语义联系效应和句法效应的研究

通过对比研究句子语境中句法成分和语义联系对目标词加工的不同影响,来探讨句子语境的作用机制和作用点问题。实验一采用词汇命名任务研究发现,句法违反对词汇命名会产生抑制作用,而语义违反对词汇命名却没有发现抑制作用。实验二利用词汇决定任务发现,句法和语义成分影响词汇决定任务,句法违反和语义违反对词汇决定任务均会产生抑制作用。结果表明,句子语境加工中,对内容词语义整合过程中存在一个句法成分的独立加工水平。