Repetition Priming Effects Research Articles

Can You Identify These Celebrities? A Network Analysis on Differences between Word and Face Recognition

Face recognition is located in the fusiform gyrus, which is also related to other tasks such word recognition. Although these two processes have several similarities, there are remarkable differences that include a vast range of approaches, which results from different groups of participants. This research aims to examine how the word-processing system processes faces at different moments and vice versa. Two experiments were carried out. Experiment 1 allowed us to examine the classical discrimination task, while Experiment 2 allowed us to examine very early moments of discrimination. In the first experiment, 20 Spanish University students volunteered to participate. Secondly, a sample of 60 participants from different nationalities volunteered to take part in Experiment 2. Furthermore, the role of sex and place of origin were considered in Experiment 1. No differences between men and women were found in Experiment 1, nor between conditions. However, Experiment 2 depicted shorter latencies for faces than word names, as well as a higher masked repetition priming effect for word identities and word names preceded by faces. Emerging methodologies in the field might help us to better understand the relationship among these two processes. For this reason, a network analysis approach was carried out, depicting sub-communities of nodes related to face or word name recognition, which were replicated across different groups of participants. Bootstrap inferences are proposed to account for variability in estimating the probabilities in the current samples. This supports that both processes are related to early moments of recognition, and rather than being independent, they might be bilaterally distributed with some expert specializations or preferences.

The time course of priming in aphasia: An exploration of learning along a continuum of linguistic processing demands.

This study investigates learning in aphasia as manifested through automatic priming effects. There is growing evidence that people with aphasia have impairments beyond language processing that could affect their response to treatment. Therefore, better understanding these mechanisms would be beneficial for improving methods of rehabilitation. This study assesses semantic and repetition priming effects at varied interstimulus intervals, using stimuli that are both non-linguistic and linguistic in tasks that range from requiring nearly no linguistic processing to requiring both lexical and semantic processing. Results indicate that people with aphasia maintain typical patterns of learning across both linguistic and non-linguistic tasks as long as the implicit prime-target relationship does not depend on deep levels of linguistic processing. As linguistic processing demands increase, those with agrammatic aphasia may require more time to take advantage of learning through implicit prime-target relationships, and people with both agrammatic and non-agrammatic aphasia are more susceptible to breakdown of the semantic networks as processing demands on that system increase.

Distinguishing Old From New Referents During Discourse Comprehension: Evidence From ERPs and Oscillations.

In this EEG study, we used pre-registered and exploratory ERP and time-frequency analyses to investigate the resolution of anaphoric and non-anaphoric noun phrases during discourse comprehension. Participants listened to story contexts that described two antecedents, and subsequently read a target sentence with a critical noun phrase that lexically matched one antecedent (‘old’), matched two antecedents (‘ambiguous’), partially matched one antecedent in terms of semantic features (‘partial-match’), or introduced another referent (non-anaphoric, ‘new’). After each target sentence, participants judged whether the noun referred back to an antecedent (i.e., an ‘old/new’ judgment), which was easiest for ambiguous nouns and hardest for partially matching nouns. The noun-elicited N400 ERP component demonstrated initial sensitivity to repetition and semantic overlap, corresponding to repetition and semantic priming effects, respectively. New and partially matching nouns both elicited a subsequent frontal positivity, which suggested that partially matching anaphors may have been processed as new nouns temporarily. ERPs in an even later time window and ERPs time-locked to sentence-final words suggested that new and partially matching nouns had different effects on comprehension, with partially matching nouns incurring additional processing costs up to the end of the sentence. In contrast to the ERP results, the time-frequency results primarily demonstrated sensitivity to noun repetition, and did not differentiate partially matching anaphors from new nouns. In sum, our results show the ERP and time-frequency effects of referent repetition during discourse comprehension, and demonstrate the potentially demanding nature of establishing the anaphoric meaning of a novel noun.

Network Degeneracy and the Dynamics of Task Switching in the Feeding Circuit inAplysia

The characteristics of a network are determined by parameters that describe the intrinsic properties of the component neurons and their synapses. Degeneracy occurs when more than one set of parameters produces the same (or very similar) output. It is not clear whether network degeneracy impacts network function or is simply a reflection of the fact that, although it is important for a network to be able to generate a particular output, it is not important how this is achieved. We address this issue in the feeding network of the mollusc Aplysia In this system, there are two stimulation paradigms that generate egestive motor programs: repetition priming and positive biasing. We demonstrate that circuit parameters differ in the 2 cases (e.g., egestive repetition priming requires activity in an interneuron, B20, which is not essential for positive biasing). We show that degeneracy has consequences for task switching. If egestive repetition priming is immediately followed by stimulation of an ingestive input to the feeding central pattern generator, the first few cycles of activity are egestive (not ingestive). In this situation, there is a task switch cost. This "cost" is in part due to the potentiating effect of egestive repetition priming on B20. In contrast, there is no switch cost after positive biasing. Stimulation of the ingestive central pattern generator input immediately triggers ingestive activity. Our results indicate that the mechanisms used to pattern activity can impact network function in that they can determine how readily a network can switch from one configuration to another.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT A particular pattern of neural activity can be generated by more than one set of circuit parameters. How or whether this impacts network function is unclear. We address this issue in the feeding network of Aplysia and demonstrate that degeneracy in network function can have consequences for task switching. Namely, we show that, when egestive activity is generated via one set of circuit modifications, an immediate switch to ingestive activity is not possible. In contrast, rapid transitions to ingestive activity are possible if egestive activity is generated via a different set of circuit modifications.

Phoneme-Order Encoding During Spoken Word Recognition: A Priming Investigation.

In three experiments, we examined priming effects where primes were formed by transposing the first and last phoneme of tri-phonemic target words (e.g., /byt/ as a prime for /tyb/). Auditory lexical decisions were found not to be sensitive to this transposed-phoneme priming manipulation in long-term priming (Experiment 1), with primes and targets presented in two separated blocks of stimuli and with unrelated primes used as control condition (/mul/-/tyb/), while a long-term repetition priming effect was observed (/tyb/-/tyb/). However, a clear transposed-phoneme priming effect was found in two short-term priming experiments (Experiments 2 and 3), with primes and targets presented in close temporal succession. The transposed-phoneme priming effect was found when unrelated prime-target pairs (/mul/-/tyb/) were used as control and more important when prime-target pairs sharing the medial vowel (/pys/-/tyb/) served as control condition, thus indicating that the effect is not due to vocalic overlap. Finally, in Experiment 3, a transposed-phoneme priming effect was found when primes sharing the medial vowel plus one consonant in an incorrect position with the targets (/byl/-/tyb/) served as control condition, and this condition did not differ significantly from the vowel-only condition. Altogether, these results provide further evidence for a role for position-independent phonemes in spoken word recognition, such that a phoneme at a given position in a word also provides evidence for the presence of words that contain that phoneme at a different position.

Differences in Brain Activity After Learning With the Use of a Digital Pen vs. an Ink Pen-An Electroencephalography Study.

The purpose of this study is to clarify whether there is a learning effect on brain activity after writing with an ink pen vs. a digital pen. Previous studies have reported the superiority of handwriting to typing in terms of learning performance, but differences between the use of an ink pen vs. a digital pen remain unclear. In the present study, the participants learned to read difficult words by writing with an ink pen vs. a digital pen. After the learning period, electroencephalography (EEG) signals were measured, while the participants underwent a repetition priming paradigm with the use of the learned words. The repetition priming effect of the N400 event-related potential (ERP) was quantified as an index of the learning effect and the effects between pen types were compared. The groups were also subdivided according to whether a digital pen is frequently used (familiar vs. unfamiliar group). The number of writing repetitions for each word within 10 min during the learning activity and the post-learning test scores were not affected by the pen-type or familiarity with a digital pen. However, the repetition priming effect of the N400 was greater for words written with a digital pen in the learning session, as compared with an ink pen, in the familiar group, but not the unfamiliar group. These results suggest that for those familiar with its use, writing with a digital pen may improve learning relative to the use of an ink pen.

The impact of text orientation on form priming effects in four-character Chinese words.

Does visuospatial orientation influence repetition and transposed character (TC) priming effects in logographic scripts? According to perceptual learning accounts, the nature of orthographic (form) priming effects should be influenced by text orientation (Dehaene, Cohen, Sigman, & Vinckier, 2005; Grainger & Holcomb, 2009). In contrast, Witzel, Qiao, and Forster's (2011) abstract letter unit account argues that the mechanism responsible for such effects acts at a totally abstract orthographic level (i.e., the visuospatial orientation is irrelevant to the nature of the relevant orthographic code). The present experiments expanded this debate beyond alphabetic scripts and the syllabic Kana script used by Witzel et al. to a logographic script (Chinese). Experiment 1 showed masked repetition and TC priming effects with primes and targets presented in both the conventional left-to-right horizontal orientation and the vertical top-to-bottom orientation, replicating Witzel et al. Experiment 2 showed masked repetition and TC priming effects even when both the primes and targets were presented in the right-to-left orientation, a rare but existent text orientation in Chinese. In Experiment 3, the primes, but not the targets, were presented in the right-to-left orientation. Priming effects were again obtained regardless of the fact that the primes and targets appeared in different orientations. Experiment 4, which involved primes and targets presented in a completely novel bottom-to-top orientation, also produced a TC priming effect. These results support abstract letter/character unit accounts of form priming effects while failing to support perceptual learning accounts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

An examination of differential repetition priming effects for natural and man-made objects

It has been theorized that differential cognitive resources may be involved in the processing of information pertaining to natural and man-made categories, commonly referred to as category specificity. The present study used four experiments to assess whether a natural priming advantage exists and, if so, whether color, texture, color diagnosticity, object complexity, and familiarity could account for the categorical difference. To do so, a repetition priming paradigm was used in which masked primes were briefly presented, and targets were categorized as natural or man-made. Across four experiments, a greater degree of priming was observed for natural as opposed to man-made stimuli. Examination of stimulus characteristics that could account for the differences revealed that the natural priming advantage was in part driven by color diagnosticity and familiarity. Results of this study support the notion that different cognitive resources represent and/or are involved in the processing of natural and man-made categories.

Repetition priming effects for famous faces through dynamic causal modelling of latency-corrected event-related brain potentials.

Repetition priming, that is, the repeated processing of a stimulus, facilitates performance. However, the neural underpinnings of repetition priming for famous faces in terms of effective connectivity are not known. Here we investigated this problem using dynamic causal modelling of latency-corrected event-related brain potentials (RERPs). Source waveforms of RERP-derived sources in the Occipital Lobe, Fusiform Gyrus, Mediotemporal Lobe, Prefrontal Cortex and Anterotemporal Lobe of each hemisphere entered into models with only forward (F) or also with backward (FB) connections. Based on the framework of predictive coding formulated for repetition suppression, modulations of F and FB connections were expected for sources that displayed priming effects in their source waveforms. Hence, neural sources in each hemisphere were fitted with either F or FB connections. Inter-hemispheric connections were considered between homologous areas and were allowed to be modulated in an incremental manner resulting in a model space that comprised of 24 models. Bayesian model averaging across models revealed effective bidirectional connectivity between the Fusiform Gyrus (face perception) and Prefrontal Cortex (decision-making) in both hemispheres to be modulated by priming. In the left hemisphere, there is also a substantial involvement from the Mediotemporal Lobe, indicating the facilitation of automatic retrieval of the famous person's name. Furthermore, there is evidence that the priming is supported by connections from the right to the left Fusiform Gyri possibly in the service of inter-hemispheric cooperation. Altogether, the study indicates that along with top-down modulations, efficient processing within and across the two hemispheres is crucial for famous face priming.

Fluency in Commercial Breaks: The Impact of Repetition and Conceptual Priming on Brand Memory, Evaluation, and Behavioral Intentions

Although sold by television channels for high fees, the effectiveness of tandem-spots and brand exclusivity has not been investigated so far. A 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment (N = 325) was conducted to investigate the effects of repetition (tandem-spot) and conceptual priming (competing spot) on brand memory, evaluation, and behavioral intentions toward the brand, while applying the processing fluency construct as theoretical foundation. Tandem-spots improved brand recall, but no significant effects were found concerning brand evaluation or behavioral intentions. Competing spots meanwhile acted as conceptual primes, enhancing brand memory, evaluation, and behavioral intentions. These findings partially contradict offerings and recommendations made by television channels.

Exploring the lexical competition and repetition priming effects in L2 verb generation

Word-generation tasks have been frequently used in behavioral and neuroimaging research to explore the mechanisms of semantic retrieval and competition during language production. In the current st...

TDCS Facilitation of Picture Naming: Item-Specific, Task General, or Neither?

The aim of the present study was to clarify the conditions under which anodal tDCS applied to left hemisphere language sites may facilitate picture naming latencies in healthy young adults. We built upon previous studies by directly testing for item-specific and generalized effects of tDCS through manipulation of item-familiarization and through testing for both online and offline effects of stimulation, in the same paradigm. In addition, we tested for the robustness of these effects by comparing two left hemisphere sites critical for lexical retrieval. Twenty-eight healthy young adults completed two testing sessions receiving either anodal (1.5 mA, 20 min) or sham stimulation (1.5 mA, 30 s) in each session. Half of the participants received tDCS over the left inferior frontal region and the other half over the left posterior superior temporal region. All participants were asked to a name a set of pictures and their response latencies were compared at three time points (before, during, and after the end of stimulation). The stimulus set was constructed so that some items were presented at all time points, some before and after stimulation, and some during stimulation only. A parsimonious linear mixed effects model (LMM) revealed robust repetition priming effects as latencies were reliably faster for previously named items in all conditions. However, active tDCS did not produce any additional facilitation in relation to sham, and even led to slower performance in the IFG group when the stimulated items differed from those tested at baseline and post-test. Our findings add to the present debate about the efficacy of single-session tDCS for modulation of lexical retrieval in healthy young adults. We conclude that future research should take a more systematic, step-wise approach to the application of tDCS to the study of language and that more sensitive experimental paradigms, which include a training element, are more adapted to the study of cognitive processes in populations with optimal levels of cortical excitability.

Taste priming and cross-modal taste-olfactory priming in normal aging and in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.

Previous research has shown repetition priming for objects between vision and touch, environmental sounds and pictures in young and older adults. This preliminary study investigated whether repetition priming exists for edible stimuli and if it is preserved in healthy older adults and older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 investigated whether cross-modal repetition priming between taste and olfaction is preserved with age and cognitive impairment. The results of Experiment 1 showed significant repetition priming effects for edible stimuli presented to taste, but there was a significant decrease in performance with age and cognitive decline. Experiment 2 showed cross-modal taste to olfactory priming in young adults and healthy older people, but the performance of older adults with MCI did not differ from zero. Again, identification decreased significantly in older adults and was absent in those with MCI. Implicit memory for stimuli presented to taste persists in healthy older adults and those with MCI, although their performance declined compared to young adults. The finding of cross-modal taste and olfactory priming suggests the connection between these two chemosensory perceptual modalities.

Cellular Effects of Repetition Priming in the Aplysia Feeding Network Are Suppressed during a Task-Switch But Persist and Facilitate a Return to the Primed State.

Many neural networks are multitasking and receive modulatory input, which configures activity. As a result, these networks can enter a relatively persistent state in which they are biased to generate one type of output as opposed to another. A question we address is as follows: what happens to this type of state when the network is forced to task-switch? We address this question in the feeding system of the mollusc Aplysia This network generates ingestive and egestive motor programs. We focus on an identified neuron that is selectively active when programs are ingestive. Previous work has established that the increase in firing frequency observed during ingestive programs is at least partially mediated by an excitability increase. Here we identify the underlying cellular mechanism as the induction of a cAMP-dependent inward current. We ask how this current is impacted by the subsequent induction of egestive activity. Interestingly, we demonstrate that this task-switch does not eliminate the inward current but instead activates an outward current. The induction of the outward current obviously reduces the net inward current in the cell. This produces the decrease in excitability and firing frequency required for the task-switch. Importantly, however, the persistence of the inward current is not impacted. It remains present and coexists with the outward current. Consequently, when effects of egestive priming and the outward current dissipate, firing frequency and excitability remain above baseline levels. This presumably has important functional implications in that it will facilitate a return to ingestive activity.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Under physiological conditions, an animal generating a particular type of motor activity can be forced to at least briefly task-switch. In some circumstances, this involves the temporary induction of an "antagonistic" or incompatible motor program. For example, ingestion can be interrupted by a brief period of egestive activity. In this type of situation, it is often desirable for behavioral switching to occur rapidly and efficiently. In this report, we focus on a particular aspect of this type of task-switch. We determine how the priming that occurs when a multitasking network repeatedly generates one type of motor activity can be retained during the execution of an incompatible motor program.

Left-Lateralized Contributions of Saccades to Cortical Activity During a One-Back Word Recognition Task.

Saccadic eye movements are an inherent component of natural reading, yet their contribution to information processing at subsequent fixation remains elusive. Here we use anatomically-constrained magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine cortical activity following saccades as healthy human subjects engaged in a one-back word recognition task. This activity was compared with activity following external visual stimulation that mimicked saccades. A combination of procedures was employed to eliminate saccadic ocular artifacts from the MEG signal. Both saccades and saccade-like external visual stimulation produced early-latency responses beginning ~70 ms after onset in occipital cortex and spreading through the ventral and dorsal visual streams to temporal, parietal and frontal cortices. Robust differential activity following the onset of saccades vs. similar external visual stimulation emerged during 150–350 ms in a left-lateralized cortical network. This network included: (i) left lateral occipitotemporal (LOT) and nearby inferotemporal (IT) cortex; (ii) left posterior Sylvian fissure (PSF) and nearby multimodal cortex; and (iii) medial parietooccipital (PO), posterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortices. Moreover, this left-lateralized network colocalized with word repetition priming effects. Together, results suggest that central saccadic mechanisms influence a left-lateralized language network in occipitotemporal and temporal cortex above and beyond saccadic influences at preceding stages of information processing during visual word recognition.

Limitations of translation activation in masked priming: Behavioural evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals and computational modelling

Electrophysiological and behavioural evidence suggests that Chinese translations of English words are automatically activated when Chinese-English bilinguals read English words (e.g., Thierry & Wu, 2007; Wu & Thierry, 2010; Zhang, van Heuven, & Conklin, 2011). The present study investigated the impact of translation activation in three behavioural experiments with in total 118 Chinese-English bilinguals. First, we investigated whether Chinese phonology was the source of the effects of Chinese character repetition in the Chinese translations of English masked primes and targets (hidden repetition priming) observed in Zhang et al.’s (2011), and whether these hidden repetition priming effects were affected by Chinese morpheme complexity and prime duration. However, we failed to find any evidence of hidden repetition priming. An exact replication of Zhang et al. (2011) was conducted next, which again provided no evidence for hidden repetition priming. However, cross-language priming data collected with the same group of participants did reveal masked translation priming and crucially Chinese character repetition priming with masked Chinese primes and English targets (partially hidden repetition priming), indicating that the activation of Chinese translations in the masked priming paradigm is limited to English target words. Computational modeling work provided further support that translation form activation is limited to target words in the masked priming paradigm.

Inhibition accumulates over time at multiple processing levels in bilingual language control

It is commonly assumed that bilinguals enable production in their nondominant language by inhibiting their dominant language temporarily, fully lifting inhibition to switch back. In a re-analysis of data from 416 Spanish-English bilinguals who repeatedly named a small set of pictures while switching languages in response to cues, we separated trials into different types that revealed three cumulative effects. Bilinguals named each picture (a) faster for every time they had previously named that same picture in the same language, an asymmetric repetition priming effect that was greater in their nondominant language, and (b) more slowly for every time they had previously named that same picture in the other language, an effect that was equivalent across languages and implies symmetric lateral inhibition between translation equivalents. Additionally, (c) bilinguals named pictures in the dominant language more slowly for every time they had previously named unrelated pictures in the nondominant language, exhibiting asymmetric language-wide global inhibition. These mechanisms dynamically alter the balances of activation between languages and between lemmas, providing evidence for an oft-assumed but seldom demonstrated key mechanism of bilingual control (competition between translations), resolving the mystery of why reversed language dominance sometimes emerges (the combined forces of asymmetrical effects emerge over time in mixed-language blocks), and also explaining other longer-lasting effects (block order). Key signatures of bilingual control can depend on seemingly trivial methodological details (e.g., the number of trials in a block) because inhibition is applied cumulatively at both local and global levels, persisting long after each individual act of selection.

Comparing Repetition Priming Effects in Words and Arithmetic Equations: Robust Priming Regardless of Color or Response Hand Change.

Previous studies have shown that stimulus repetition can lead to reliable behavioral improvements. Although this repetition priming (RP) effect has been reported in a number of paradigms using a variety of stimuli including words, objects, and faces, only a few studies have investigated mathematical cognition involving arithmetic computation, and no prior research has directly compared RP effects in a linguistic task with an arithmetic task. In two experiments, we used a within-subjects design to investigate and compare the magnitude of RP, and the effects of changing the color or the response hand for repeated, otherwise identical, stimuli in a word and an arithmetic categorization task. The results show that the magnitude of RP was comparable between the two tasks and that changing the color or the response hand had a negligible effect on priming in either task. These results extended previous findings in mathematical cognition. They also indicate that priming does not vary with stimulus domain. The implications of the results were discussed with reference to both facilitation of component processes and episodic memory retrieval of stimulus–response binding.

The perceptual wink model of non-switching attentional blink tasks.

The attentional blink (AB) is a temporary deficit for a second target (T2) when that target appears after a first target (T1). Although sophisticated models have been developed to explain the substantial AB literature in isolation, the current study considers how the AB relates to perceptual dynamics more broadly. We show that the time-course of the AB is closely related to the time course of the transition from positive to negative repetition priming effects in perceptual identification. Many AB tasks involve a switch between a T1 defined in one manner and a T2 defined in a different manner. Other AB tasks are non-switching, with all targets belonging to the same well-known category (e.g., letter targets versus number distractors) or sharing the same perceptual feature. We propose that these non-switching AB tasks reflect perceptual habituation for the target-defining attribute; thus, a 'perceptual wink', with perception of one attribute (target identity) undisturbed while perception of another (target detection) is impaired. On this account, the immediate benefit following T1 (lag-1 sparing) reflects positive repetition priming and the subsequent deficit (the blink) reflects negative repetition priming for the realization that a target occurred. In developing the perceptual wink model, we extended the nROUSE model of perceptual priming to explain the results of two new experiments combining the AB and identity repetitions. This establishes important connections between non-switching AB tasks and perceptual dynamics.

Masked repetition priming effect in an episodic recognition task

Masked repetition priming effect in an episodic recognition task