Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity Modulate Electrophysiological Correlates of Semantic Negative Priming From Single Words.

Montserrat Megías,Markus Kiefer,Juan J Ortells,Isabel Carmona,Carmen Noguera

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2021.765290

Montserrat Megías, Markus Kiefer + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.765290

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Abstract

In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were registered during a semantic negative priming (NP) task in participants with higher and lower working memory capacity (WMC). On each trial participants had to actively ignore a briefly presented single prime word, which was followed either immediately or after a delay by a mask. Thereafter, either a semantically related or an unrelated target word was presented, to which participants made a semantic categorization judgment. The ignored prime produced a behavioral semantic NP in delayed (but not in immediate) masking trials, and only for participants with a higher-WMC. Both masking type and WMC also modulated ERP priming effects. When the ignored prime was immediately followed by a mask (which impeded its conscious identification) a reliable N400 modulation was found irrespective of participants’ WMC. However, when the mask onset following the prime was delayed (thus allowing its conscious identification), an attenuation of a late positive ERP (LPC) was observed in related compared to unrelated trials, but only in the higher-WMC group showing reliable behavioral NP. The present findings demonstrate for the first time that individual differences in WMC modulate both behavioral measures and electrophysiological correlates of semantic NP.

Highlights

Working memory (WM) has been defined as the capacity to actively retain and manipulate a limited amount of internal information (e.g., Baddeley, 1986)
The analysis of RTs revealed a reliable interaction between working memory capacity (WMC) and Relatedness [F(1, 50) = 12.60, p = 0.001, η2 = 0.201], such that the ignored prime words showed a reliable semantic negative priming (NP) effect in participants with higher WMC [−15 ms; F(1, 25) = 5.39, p = 0.029, η2 = 0.177], whereas a positive priming (PP) effect was found in the Lower-WMC group [+22 ms; F(1, 25) = 7.24, p = 0.013, η2 = 0.225]
Instructing participants to actively ignore a single prime word led to slowed response times (NP) and a diminished late event-related potentials (ERPs) positivity in responses to a semantically related probe target. These NP-related behavioral and ERP effects were observed (i) only when the onset of the mask following the prime was delayed, and (ii) in the group of participants with a higher-WMC

Summary

Introduction

Working memory (WM) has been defined as the capacity to actively retain and manipulate a limited amount of internal information (e.g., Baddeley, 1986). WM is critical for storage and manipulation of information, and plays a role in maintaining goal-directed behavior in the presence of potential distractors or contextually inadequate alternative responses. Electrophysiological Correlates-Semantic Negative Priming information, both the target and competing distractors must remain clearly separated in processing. A variety of studies over the last decades have demonstrated that a reduction in the availability of WM resources is associated with a decreased capacity to inhibit or suppress the processing of irrelevant competing information in selective attention tasks (e.g., Engle and Kane, 2004; Shipstead et al, 2014; Ortells et al, 2016b; Megías et al, 2020)

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