Semantic Blocking Research Articles

Top-down enhanced object recognition in blocking and priming paradigms.

Previous studies have demonstrated that context manipulations by semantic blocking and category priming can, under particular design conditions, give rise to semantic facilitation effects. The interpretation of semantic facilitation effects is controversial in the word production literature; perceptual accounts propose that contextually facilitated object recognition may underlie facilitation effects. The present study tested this notion. We investigated the difficulty of object recognition in a semantic blocking and a category priming task. We presented all pictures in gradually de-blurring image sequences and measured the de-blurring level that first allowed for correct object naming as an indicator of the perceptual demands of object recognition. Based on object recognition models assuming a temporal progression from coarse- to fine-grained visual processing, we reasoned that the lower the required level of detail, the more efficient the recognition processes. The results demonstrate that categorically related contexts reduce the level of visual detail required for object naming compared to unrelated contexts, with this effect being most pronounced for shape-distinctive objects and in contexts providing explicit category cues. We propose a top-down explanation based on target predictability of the observed effects. Implications of the recognition effects based on target predictability for the interpretation of context effects observed in latencies are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Concurrent semantic priming and lexical interference for close semantic relations in blocked-cyclic picture naming: Electrophysiological signatures.

In the present study, we employed event-related brain potentials to investigate the effects of semantic similarity on different planning stages during language production. We manipulated semantic similarity by controlling feature overlap within taxonomical hierarchies. In a blocked-cyclic naming task, participants named pictures in repeated cycles, blocked in semantically close, distant, or unrelated conditions. Only closely related items, but not distantly related items, induced semantic blocking effects. In the first presentation cycle, naming was facilitated, and amplitude modulations in the N1 component around 140-180ms post-stimulus onset predicted this behavioral facilitation. In contrast, in later cycles, naming was delayed, and a negative-going posterior amplitude modulation around 250-350ms post-stimulus onset predicted this interference. These findings indicate easier object recognition or identification underlying initial facilitation and increased difficulties during lexical selection. The N1modulation was reduced but persisted in later cycles in which interference dominated, and the posterior negativity was also present in cycle 1 in which facilitation dominated, demonstrating concurrent effects of conceptual priming and lexical interference in all naming cycles. Our assumptions about the functional role these two opposing forces play in producing semantic context effects are further supported by the finding that the joint modulation of these two ERPs on naming latency exclusively emerged when naming closely related, but not unrelated items. The current findings demonstrate that close relations, but not distant taxonomic relations, induce stronger semantic blocking effects, and that temporally overlapping electrophysiological signatures reflect a trade-off between facilitatory priming and interfering lexical competition.

The influence of language dominance and domain-general executive control on semantic context effects

ABSTRACT We investigated whether semantic context effects in speech production and comprehension are sensitive to language dominance and whether they involve domain-general executive control. We indexed these effects using semantic blocking within the cyclical semantic paradigm (corresponding to poorer performance in semantically related contexts compared to unrelated contexts) in a study that addressed the limitations of previous research: (i) we compared semantic blocking between participants tested in their native language and those tested in a language they were clearly less proficient in (not just the less dominant language), and (ii) we examined the involvement of executive control with a non-linguistic (rather than a linguistic) index. Participants in both groups showed equal semantic blocking in production and comprehension. Executive control only predicted the magnitude of semantic blocking in speech production. These results suggest that semantic context effects are insensitive to language dominance, and that effects of executive control arise in production tasks.

Lexical Planning in People Who Stutter: A Defect in Lexical Encoding or the Planning Scope?

Developmental stuttering is a widely discussed speech fluency disorder. Research on its mechanism has focused on an atypical interface between the planning (PLAN) and execution (EX) processes, known collectively as the EXPLAN model. However, it remains unclear how this atypical interface influences people who stutter. A straightforward assumption is that stuttering speakers adopt a smaller scope of speech planning, whereas a defect in word retrieval can be confounding. To shed light on this issue, we took the semantic blocking effect as an index to examine lexical planning in word and phrase production. In Experiment 1, for word production, pictures from the same semantic category were combined to form homogeneous blocks, and pictures from different categories were combined to form heterogeneous blocks. A typical effect of semantic blocking showing longer naming latencies for homogeneous blocks than heterogeneous ones was observed for both stuttering and fluent speakers. However, this effect was smaller for stuttering speakers, when it was subject to lexical defects in stuttering. In Experiment 2, for a conjoined noun phrase production task, the pictures referring to the first noun were manipulated into homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions. The semantic blocking effect was also much smaller for stuttering speakers, indicating a smaller scope of lexical planning. Therefore, the results provided more evidence in support of the EXPLAN model and indicated that a smaller scope of lexical planning rather than lexical defects causes the atypical interface for stuttering. Moreover, a comparison between these two tasks showed that the study findings have implications for syntactic defects in stuttering.

Lexical and semantic connections in number words translation

The present study investigated the influence of lexical links and conceptual mediation in number word translation. In four experiments, a semantic blocking paradigm was used with numerical stimuli and stimuli from other non-number categories. The performance of Spanish L1–English L2 bilinguals was examined in backward and forward translation (Experiment 1 and 3), in naming Arabic digits and pictures (Experiment 2A) and in reading L1 and L2 words (Experiment 2B). The blocked context produced a facilitatory effect for numerical stimuli in the lower range. This result contrasts with the interference effect observed for stimuli from non-number categories in translation and naming tasks. These results are interpreted to mean that the translation of number words, particularly those in the lower range of the numeric sequence, takes place with a large influence of the lexical connections. It supports the suggestions that the influence of processing routes depends on the type of items.

A unified computational account of cumulative semantic, semantic blocking, and semantic distractor effects in picture naming

Computational models of lexical selection in spoken word production have been applied to semantic interference effects in picture naming response times obtained with continuous naming, blocked-cyclic naming, and picture-word interference paradigms. However, a unified computational account of the effects in the three paradigms is lacking. Here, I show that the inclusion of conceptual bias in the WEAVER++model (Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 1999) explains cumulative semantic and semantic blocking effects while preserving the model's account of semantic distractor effects. The key assumptions of the account are (1) lexical selection by competition, and (2) a conceptual origin and lexical locus of the semantic effects. I provide a proof of concept of the account by reporting computer simulation results, addressing behavioral and neuroimaging evidence. The assumptions are sufficient for a unified account of semantic effects in the three paradigms, contrary to pessimistic views of this area.

Word frequency predicts translation asymmetry

Bilingualism studies report asymmetries in word processing across languages. Access to L2 words is slower and sensitive to semantic blocking. These observations inform influential models of bilingual processing, which propose autonomous lexicons with different processing routes. In a series of experiments, we explored an alternative hypothesis that the asymmetries are due to frequency of use. Using a within-language ‘translation’ task, involving high/low frequency (HF/LF) synonyms, we obtained parallel results to bilingual studies. Experiment 1 revealed that HF synonyms were accessed faster than LF ones. Experiment 2 showed that semantic blocking slowed retrieval only of LF synonyms, while form blocking produced powerful interference of both HF and LF words. Experiment 3 examined translation speed and sensitivity to blocking in two groups of Russian-English bilinguals who differed in frequency of use of their languages. Translation asymmetries were modulated by frequency of use. The results support an integrated lexicon model of bilingual processing.

The development of semantic blocking in children.

Pictures are named more slowly in the context of semantically related pictures than in the context of unrelated pictures. This semantic blocking effect has been studied extensively in adult participants, and one study has revealed its presence in 6-year-old children. However, little is known about the development of the effect with age. In this study, a blocked cyclic naming procedure was arranged for 5- to 7-year-old and 10- to 12-year-old children. The semantic blocking effect obtained did not differ in size between the two age groups. This finding is tentatively interpreted as evidence that the semantic blocking effect does not have the same underlying cause as interference effects typically observed in naming tasks involving a distractor stimulus, like the Stroop task. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? The semantic blocking effect has been demonstrated in adults, but little is known about its development in childhood. Age-related changes in performance in children have been used to distinguish various types of inhibitory control. What does this study add? A semantic blocking effect was obtained in 5- to 7-year-old children and - for the first time - in 10- to 12-year-old children. In the two age groups, the effect was equal in size and did not show up in the first cycles of the experiment. The findings are argued to be in line with the distinction unintentional vs. intentional inhibitory control.

Lexical Planning in Sentence Production Is Highly Incremental: Evidence from ERPs.

The scope of lexical planning, which means how far ahead speakers plan lexically before they start producing an utterance, is an important issue for research into speech production, but remains highly controversial. The present research investigated this issue using the semantic blocking effect, which refers to the widely observed effects that participants take longer to say aloud the names of items in pictures when the pictures in a block of trials in an experiment depict items that belong to the same semantic category than different categories. As this effect is often interpreted as a reflection of difficulty in lexical selection, the current study took the semantic blocking effect and its associated pattern of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as a proxy to test whether lexical planning during sentence production extends beyond the first noun when a subject noun-phrase includes two nouns, such as “The chair and the boat are both red” and “The chair above the boat is red”. The results showed a semantic blocking effect both in onset latencies and in ERPs during the utterance of the first noun of these complex noun-phrases but not for the second noun. The indication, therefore, is that the lexical planning scope does not encompass this second noun-phrase. Indeed, the present findings are in line with accounts that propose radically incremental lexical planning, in which speakers plan ahead only one word at a time. This study also provides a highly novel example of using ERPs to examine the production of long utterances, and it is hoped the present demonstration of the effectiveness of this approach inspires further application of ERP techniques in this area of research.

What words should be trained together? Effects of semantic and orthographic blocking on dysgraphia treatment

What words should be trained together? Effects of semantic and orthographic blocking on dysgraphia treatment

Selective inhibition and naming performance in semantic blocking, picture-word interference, and color-word Stroop tasks.

In 2 studies, we examined whether explicit distractors are necessary and sufficient to evoke selective inhibition in 3 naming tasks: the semantic blocking, picture-word interference, and color-word Stroop task. Delta plots were used to quantify the size of the interference effects as a function of reaction time (RT). Selective inhibition was operationalized as the decrease in the size of the interference effect as a function of naming RT. For all naming tasks, mean naming RTs were significantly longer in the interference condition than in the control condition. The slopes of the interference effects for the longest naming RTs correlated with the magnitude of the mean interference effect in both the semantic blocking task and the picture-word interference task, suggesting that selective inhibition was involved to reduce the interference from strong semantic competitors either invoked by a single explicit competitor or strong implicit competitors in picture naming. However, there was no correlation between the slopes and the mean interference effect in the Stroop task, suggesting less importance of selective inhibition in this task despite explicit distractors. Whereas the results of the semantic blocking task suggest that an explicit distractor is not necessary for triggering inhibition, the results of the Stroop task suggest that such a distractor is not sufficient for evoking inhibition either.

Preserved cumulative semantic interference despite amnesia

Preserved cumulative semantic interference despite amnesia

What we talk about when we talk about access deficits.

Semantic impairments have been divided into storage deficits, in which the semantic representations themselves are damaged, and access deficits, in which the representations are intact but access to them is impaired. The behavioural phenomena that have been associated with access deficits include sensitivity to cueing, sensitivity to presentation rate, performance inconsistency, negative serial position effects, sensitivity to number and strength of competitors, semantic blocking effects, disordered selection between strong and weak competitors, correlation between semantic deficits and executive function deficits and reduced word frequency effects. Four general accounts have been proposed for different subsets of these phenomena: abnormal refractoriness, too much activation, impaired competitive selection and deficits of semantic control. A combination of abnormal refractoriness and impaired competitive selection can account for most of the behavioural phenomena, but there remain several open questions. In particular, it remains unclear whether access deficits represent a single syndrome, a syndrome with multiple subtypes or a variable collection of phenomena, whether the underlying deficit is domain-general or domain-specific, whether it is owing to disorders of inhibition, activation or selection, and the nature of the connection (if any) between access phenomena in aphasia and in neurologically intact controls. Computational models offer a promising approach to answering these questions.

A Paradigm for Investigating Executive Control Mechanisms in Word Retrieval in Language-Impaired and Neurotypical Speakers

A Paradigm for Investigating Executive Control Mechanisms in Word Retrieval in Language-Impaired and Neurotypical Speakers

Semantic processing in the production of numerals across notations.

In the present work, we conducted a series of experiments to explore the processing stages required to name numerals presented in different notations. To this end, we used the semantic blocking paradigm previously used in psycholinguist studies. We found a facilitative effect of the semantic blocked context relative to the mixed context for Arabic digits and number words. However, the blocked context produced an interference effect for physical numerosity and Roman numbers. Our results provided further evidence to models suggesting that Arabic digits may be named through an asemantic route similar to that of number words, whereas a semantic route is mandatory to name physical numerosity and Roman numerals.

Brain Oscillations and Functional Connectivity during Overt Language Production

In the present study we investigate the communication of different large scale brain sites during an overt language production task with state of the art methods for the estimation of EEG functional connectivity. Participants performed a semantic blocking task in which objects were named in semantically homogeneous blocks of trials consisting of members of a semantic category (e.g., all objects are tools) or in heterogeneous blocks, consisting of unrelated objects. The classic pattern of slower naming times in the homogeneous relative to heterogeneous blocks is assumed to reflect the duration of lexical selection. For the collected data in the homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions the imaginary part of coherency (ImC) was evaluated at different frequencies. The ImC is a measure for detecting the coupling of different brain sites acting on sensor level. Most importantly, the ImC is robust to the artifact of volume conduction. We analyzed the ImC at all pairs of 56 EEG channels across all frequencies. Contrasting the two experimental conditions we found pronounced differences in the theta band at 7 Hz and estimated the most dominant underlying brain sources via a minimum norm inverse solution based on the ImC. As a result of the source localization, we observed connectivity between occipito-temporal and frontal areas, which are well-known to play a major role in lexical-semantic language processes. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of investigating interactive brain activity during overt language production.

Electrophysiological effects of semantic context in picture and word naming

Recent language production studies have started to use electrophysiological measures to investigate the time course of word selection processes. An important contribution with respect to this issue comes from studies that have relied on an effect of semantic context in the semantic blocking task. Here we used this task to further establish the empirical pattern associated with the effect of semantic context, and whether the effect arises during output processing. Electrophysiological and reaction time measures were co-registered while participants overtly named picture and word stimuli in the semantic blocking task. The results revealed inhibitory reaction time effects of semantic context for both words and pictures, and a corresponding electrophysiological effect that could not be interpreted in terms of output processes. These data suggest that the electrophysiological effect of semantic context in the semantic blocking task does not reflect output processes, and therefore undermine an interpretation of this effect in terms of word selection.

Effect of phonetic complexity on word reading and repetition in deep dyslexia

This investigation moves beyond the traditional studies of word reading to identify how the production complexity of words affects reading accuracy in an individual with deep dyslexia (JO). We examined JO’s ability to read words aloud while manipulating both the production complexity of the words and the semantic context. The classification of words as either phonetically simple or complex was based on the Index of Phonetic Complexity. The semantic context was varied using a semantic blocking paradigm (i.e., semantically blocked and unblocked conditions). In the semantically blocked condition words were grouped by semantic categories (e.g., table, sit, seat, couch), whereas in the unblocked condition the same words were presented in a random order. JO’s performance on reading aloud was also compared to her performance on a repetition task using the same items. Results revealed a strong interaction between word complexity and semantic blocking for reading aloud but not for repetition. JO produced the greatest number of errors for phonetically complex words in semantically blocked condition. This interaction suggests that semantic processes are constrained by output production processes which are exaggerated when derived from visual rather than auditory targets. This complex relationship between orthographic, semantic, and phonetic processes highlights the need for word recognition models to explicitly account for production processes.

Naming digits in a semantic blocking paradigm

It is widely agreed that word numerals are processed similar to other words, and, thus, they can be named without semantic mediation. However, there is no consensus about Arabic digits. Although digits seem to have a preferential link to magnitude representation, there is some evidence indicating a possible asemantic route to access phonological information. In the present study, we used a semantic blocking paradigm to explore this question. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to name digits and pictures or numeral words and name of objects in a semantic blocked context and in a mixed context. For both types of numerical notation we found facilitation in the blocked condition relative to the mixed condition. In Experiment 2, participants named two-digit numbers in a blocked condition (short numerical distance) or in a mixed condition (large numerical distance). Again, facilitation was found for the blocked condition relative to the mixed condition. This pattern of results seems to indicate that Arabic digits, like number words, might be named through an asemantic route.

The dynamic microstructure of speech production: Semantic interference built on the fly.

We present 4 experiments investigating dynamic and flexible aspects of semantic activation spread during speech planning. In a semantic blocking paradigm, pictures of objects were presented in categorically homogeneous blocks consisting of semantic category members (e.g., foods), in blocks consisting of seemingly unrelated objects that could potentially be integrated into a common theme (e.g., fishing trip), or in heterogeneous blocks consisting of entirely unrelated objects. In Experiment 1 we observed a classic semantic interference effect for the categorically homogeneous condition but no effect for the thematically homogeneous condition. In Experiment 2 the blocks were preceded once by visually presented title words. When titles were presented that referred to the semantic category or theme of the block, interference was observed not only in the categorically homogeneous condition but also in the thematically homogeneous condition. The ad hoc semantic interference effects for thematic relations were replicated with a different set of materials in Experiments 3 and 4. These observations reveal the dynamic nature of the speech production system, shaped by context and formations of flexible ad hoc categories and semantic relations.