Event Abstract Back to Event An electrophysiological dual-task study of visual word processing without task switching Nadia A. Khoja1*, Mei-Ching Lien1 and Eric Ruthruff2 1 Oregon State University, United States 2 University of New Mexico, Mexico A previous dual-task study (Lien et al., 2008) provided evidence that people have difficulty identifying words while central attention is devoted to another non-word task. In that study, participants performed an auditory Task 1 regarding tone pitch and a visual word Task 2. However, it’s possible that the real obstacle to word identification was not the lack of central attention, but rather the required task switch. The present study therefore examined this issue by using a dual-task paradigm in which participants performed essentially the same word task for both Task 1 and Task 2 (i.e., there was no task switch). We measured the N400 effect elicited by Task-2 word, a measure of whether participants detected a mismatch between the word and the current semantic context. The N400 effect can occur only if a word has been identified. We found that the N400 effect was strongly attenuated for Task-2 words presented nearly simultaneously with Task-1 words. This finding suggests that, even without task switching, words still cannot be identified without central attentional resources. Keywords: Cognition, task-switching Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neurophysiology of Cognition and Attention Citation: Khoja NA, Lien M and Ruthruff E (2011). An electrophysiological dual-task study of visual word processing without task switching. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00439 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Nadia A Khoja, Oregon State University, Oregon, United States, khojan@onid.orst.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Nadia A Khoja Mei-Ching Lien Eric Ruthruff Google Nadia A Khoja Mei-Ching Lien Eric Ruthruff Google Scholar Nadia A Khoja Mei-Ching Lien Eric Ruthruff PubMed Nadia A Khoja Mei-Ching Lien Eric Ruthruff Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.