Cognitive theory development as we know it: specificity, explanatory power and the brain

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Uso do ultra-som em programas de reprodução de peixes nativos

bitstream/CPAP/56070/1/COT62.pdfFormato eletrônic

Consistency measures individuate dissociating semantic modulations in priming paradigms: A new look on semantics in the processing of (complex) words

In human language the mapping between form and meaning is arbitrary, as there is no direct connection between words and the objects that they represent. However, within a given language, it is possible to recognize systematic associations that support productivity and comprehension. In this work, we focus on the consistency between orthographic forms and meaning, and we investigate how the cognitive system may exploit it to process words. We take morphology as our case study, since it arguably represents one of the most notable examples of systematicity in form-meaning mapping. In a series of three experiments, we investigate the impact of form-meaning mapping in word processing by testing new consistency metrics as predictors of priming magnitude in primed lexical decision. In Experiment 1, we re-analyse data from five masked morphological priming studies and show that Orthography-Semantics-Consistency explains independent variance in priming magnitude, suggesting that word semantics is accessed already at early stages of word processing and that crucially semantic access is constrained by word orthography. In Experiment 2 and 3, we investigate whether this pattern is replicated when looking at semantic priming. In Experiment 2, we show that Orthography-Semantics-Consistency is not a viable predictor of priming magnitude with longer SOA. However, in Experiment 3, we develop a new semantic consistency measure based on the semantic density of target neighbourhoods. This measure is shown to significantly predict independent variance in semantic priming effect. Overall our results indicate that consistency measures provide crucial information for the understanding of word processing. Specifically, the dissociation between measures and priming paradigms shows that different priming conditions are associated with the activation of different semantic cohorts

The nature of semantic priming by subliminal spatial words: Embodied or disembodied?

Theories of embodied semantics (ES) suggest that a critical part of understanding what a word means consists of simulating the sensorimotor experience related to the word's referent. Some proponents of ES have suggested that sensorimotor activations are mandatory and highly automatic during semantic processing. Evidence supporting this claim comes from masked priming studies showing that unconsciously perceived spatial words (e.g., up, down) can directly modulate action performance on the basis of their meaning. However, a closer look reveals that such priming effects can be explained also in terms of symbolic (disembodied) semantic priming or nonsemantic mechanisms. In this study we sought to understand whether sensorimotor processing takes place during language understanding outside awareness. We used spatial words as a test bed and across 6 experiments we teased apart the possibility that action priming could be explained by: (a) nonsemantic mechanisms, (b) symbolic semantic priming, or (c) embodied semantic priming. The critical finding is that when symbolic and nonsemantic mechanisms were prevented, allowing only for a genuinely embodied semantic priming, no effect was found. Conversely, facilitation emerged in the same experimental paradigm when embodied priming was prevented and symbolic priming was allowed. Despite extensive testing, we found no evidence that unconsciously perceived words can activate sensorimotor processes, although these words are processed up to the semantic level. We thus conclude that sensorimotor activations might need conscious access to emerge during language understanding. (PsycINFO Database Recor

Does morphological structure modulate access to embedded word meaning in child readers?

Beginning readers have been shown to be sensitive to the meaning of embedded neighbors (e.g., CROW in CROWN). Moreover, developing readers are sensitive to the morphological structure of words (TEACH-ER). However, the interaction between orthographic and morphological processes in meaning activation during reading is not well established. What determines semantic access to orthographically embedded words? What is the role of suffixes in this process? And how does this change throughout development? To address these questions, we asked 80 Italian elementary school children (third, fourth, and fifth grade) to make category decisions on words (e.g., is CARROT a type of food?). Critically, some target words for no-answers (e.g., is CORNER a type of food?) contained category-congruent embedded stems (i.e., CORN). To gauge the role of morphology in this process, half of the embedded stems were accompanied by a pseudosuffix (CORN-ER) and half by a non-morphological ending (PEA-CE). Results revealed that words were harder to reject as members of a category when the embedded stem was category-congruent. This effect held both with and without a pseudosuffix, but was larger for pseudosuffixed words in the error rates. These results suggest that orthographic stems are activated and activation is fed forward to the semantic level regardless of morphological structure, followed by a decision-making process that might strategically use suffix-like endings.Beginning readers have been shown to be sensitive to the meaning of embedded neighbors (e.g., CROW in CROWN). Moreover, developing readers are sensitive to the morphological structure of words (TEACH-ER). However, the interaction between orthographic and morphological processes in meaning activation during reading is not well established. What determines semantic access to orthographically embedded words? What is the role of suffixes in this process? And how does this change throughout development? To address these questions, we asked 80 Italian elementary school children (third, fourth, and fifth grade) to make category decisions on words (e.g., is CARROT a type of food?). Critically, some target words for no-answers (e.g., is CORNER a type of food?) contained category-congruent embedded stems (i.e., CORN). To gauge the role of morphology in this process, half of the embedded stems were accompanied by a pseudosuffix (CORN-ER) and half by a non-morphological ending (PEA-CE). Results revealed that words were harder to reject as members of a category when the embedded stem was category-congruent. This effect held both with and without a pseudosuffix, but was larger for pseudosuffixed words in the error rates. These results suggest that orthographic stems are activated and activation is fed forward to the semantic level regardless of morphological structure, followed by a decision-making process that might strategically use suffix-like endings

Letter chunk frequency does not explain morphological masked priming: Affix frequency in masked priming

Research on visual word identification has extensively investigated the role of morphemes, recurrent letter chunks that convey a fairly regular meaning (e.g., lead-er-ship). Masked priming studies highlighted morpheme identification in complex (e.g., sing-er) and pseudo-complex (corn-er) words, as well as in nonwords (e.g., basket-y). The present study investigated whether such sensitivity to morphemes could be rooted in the visual system sensitivity to statistics of letter (co)occurrence. To this aim, we assessed masked priming as induced by nonword primes obtained by combining a stem (e.g., bulb) with (i) naturally frequent, derivational suffixes (e.g., -ment), (ii) non-morphological, equally frequent word-endings (e.g., -idge), and (iii) non-morphological, infrequent word-endings (e.g., -kle). In two additional tasks, we collected interpretability and word-likeness measures for morphologically-structured nonwords, to assess whether priming is modulated by such factors. Results indicate that masked priming is not affected by either the frequency or the morphological status of word-endings, a pattern that was replicated in a second experiment including also lexical primes. Our findings are in line with models of early visual processing based on automatic stem/word extraction, and rule out letter chunk frequency as a main player in the early stages of visual word identification. Nonword interpretability and word-likeness do not affect this pattern

No fruits without color: Cross-modal priming and EEG reveal different roles for different features across semantic categories

Category-specific impairments witnessed in patients with semantic deficits have broadly dissociated into natural and artificial kinds. However, how the category of food (more specifically, fruits and vegetables) fits into this distinction has been difficult to interpret, given a pattern of deficit that has inconsistently mapped onto either kind, despite its intuitive membership to the natural domain. The present study explores the effects of a manipulation of a visual sensory (i.e., color) or functional (i.e., orientation) feature on the consequential semantic processing of fruits and vegetables (and tools, by comparison), first at the behavioral and then at the neural level. The categorization of natural (i.e., fruits/vegetables) and artificial (i.e., utensils) entities was investigated via cross-modal priming. Reaction time analysis indicated a reduction in priming for color-modified natural entities and orientationmodified artificial entities. Standard event-related potentials (ERP) analysis was performed, in addition to linear classification. For natural entities, a N400 effect at central channel sites was observed for the color-modified condition compared relative to normal and orientation conditions, with this difference confirmed by classification analysis. Conversely, there was no significant difference between conditions for the artificial category in either analysis. These findings provide strong evidence that color is an integral property to the categorization of fruits/vegetables, thus substantiating the claim that feature-based processing guides as a function of semantic category

Open Science, Fair Science: garantire la trasparenza della scienza attraverso l'organizzazione della pratica quotidiana in laboratorio

Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience are reflecting more and more on their research practices, under the spur of the so-called «replication crisis ». Many tools have been made available to researchers lately, such as diverse statistical approaches and pre-registration, or have gained an unprecedented momentum. In this paper I will argue that these tools are extremely useful and should be used widely, but aren't all-purpose solutions to our problems. A more universal medicament is transparency, intended as a bid to make available to the community all research material (e.g., stimuli, data, analysis code), at some point of the project as appropriate for each specific experiment. I will also argue that this practice can only be widely adopted (and is most effective) if the lab develops a standard research pipeline, where researchers work from Day 1 as if all their material would be under the public eye at all times. I will describe the pipeline that I've implemented in my lab to realize this principle, its strengths and weaknesses, and some tools that we may use to put that pipeline into practice on a daily basis. Finally, I will argue that establishing such a transparent pipeline isn't only ethic duty to our community, but also an effective way to make our research more visible and, eventually, give ourselves a better prospect for a shiny career

A new test of action verb naming: normative data from 290 italian adults

Introduction Verbs and nouns can be selectively impaired, suggesting that they are processed, at least in part, by distinct neural structures. While several tests of object naming are available, tasks involving action verb naming with normative data are lacking. We report the construction and standardization of a new test for the assessment of picture naming of actions. Material and methods The test includes 50 stimuli, strictly controlled for several confounding variables. Normative data on 290 Italian subjects pooled across homogenous subgroups for age, sex, and education are reported. Results Multiple regression analyses revealed that age and education significantly correlated with the subject\u2019s score. In particular, increasing age negatively affected performance, while the performance increased with a higher education. Conclusions In the clinical practice, the availability of equivalent scores will help the comparison with performance in the picture naming of objects. This test allows investigating action naming deficits in aphasic patients, in Parkinson\u2019s disease patients and in further neurodegenerative disorders, in which a specific impairment of action verbs is expected, filling a gap in the clinical neuropsychological assessment

The psycholinguistic and affective structure of words conveying pain

Despite the flourishing research on the relationships between affect and language, the characteristics of pain-related words, a specific type of negative words, have never been systematically investigated from a psycholinguistic and emotional perspective, despite their psychological relevance. This study offers psycholinguistic, affective, and pain-related norms for words expressing physical and social pain. This may provide a useful tool for the selection of stimulus materials in future studies on negative emotions and/or pain. We explored the relationships between psycholinguistic, affective, and pain-related properties of 512 Italian words (nouns, adjectives, and verbs) conveying physical and social pain by asking 1020 Italian participants to provide ratings of Familiarity, Age of Acquisition, Imageability, Concreteness, Context Availability, Valence, Arousal, Pain-Relatedness, Intensity, and Unpleasantness. We also collected data concerning Length, Written Frequency (Subtlex-IT), N-Size, Orthographic Levenshtein Distance 20, Neighbor Mean Frequency, and Neighbor Maximum Frequency of each word. Interestingly, the words expressing social pain were rated as more negative, arousing, pain-related, and conveying more intense and unpleasant experiences than the words conveying physical pain