Semantic Processing Of Pictures Research Articles

Electrophysiological evidence for effects of color knowledge in object recognition

Knowledge about the typical colors associated with familiar everyday objects (i.e., strawberries are red) is well-known to be represented in the conceptual semantic system. Evidence that such knowledge may also play a role in early perceptual processes for object recognition is scant. In the present ERP study, participants viewed a list of object pictures and detected infrequent stimulus repetitions. Results show that shortly after stimulus onset, ERP components indexing early perceptual processes, including N1, P2, and N2, differentiated between objects in their appropriate or congruent color from these objects in an inappropriate or incongruent color. Such congruence effect also occurred in N3 associated with semantic processing of pictures but not in N4 for domain-general semantic processing. Our results demonstrate a clear effect of color knowledge in early object recognition stages and support the following proposal-color as a surface property is stored in a multiple-memory system where pre-semantic perceptual and semantic conceptual representations interact during object recognition.

Bases électrophysiologiques de la sémantique des objets

How pictures and words are stored and processed in the human brain constitute a long-standing question in cognitive psychology. Behavioral studies have yielded a large amount of data addressing this issue. Generally speaking, these data show that there are some interactions between the semantic processing of pictures and words. However, behavioral methods can provide only limited insight into certain findings. Fortunately, Event-Related Potential (ERP) provides on-line cues about the temporal nature of cognitive processes and contributes to the exploration of their neural substrates. ERPs have been used in order to better understand semantic processing of words and pictures. The main objective of this article is to offer an overview of the electrophysiologic bases of semantic processing of words and pictures. Studies presented in this article showed that the processing of words is associated with an N 400 component, whereas pictures elicited both N 300 and N 400 components. Topographical analysis of the N 400 distribution over the scalp is compatible with the idea that both image-mediated concrete words and pictures access an amodal semantic system. However, given the distinctive N 300 patterns, observed only during picture processing, it appears that picture and word processing rely upon distinct neuronal networks, even if they end up activating more or less similar semantic representations.

Age of acquisition effects in the semantic processing of pictures

In two experiments, we investigated the role of age of acquisition (AoA) in the categorizing of objects in semantic tasks that do not require access to the object names. In both a found inside or outside the house (Experiment 1A) and a smaller or larger than a loaf of bread (Experiment 2A) classification task, objects with earlier-acquired names were categorized more quickly than those with later-acquired names. Experiments 1B and 2B also showed AoA effects on object-naming times for the same pictures. We conclude that AoA operates within the identification process in a fashion not simply restricted to name retrieval. These effects may be better explained in terms of the connectionist model proposed by Ellis and Lambon Ralph (2000) or by accounts that locate AoA within the semantic system (e.g., Brysbaert, Van Wijnendaele, & De Deyne, 2000; van Loon-Vervoorn, 1989).

Semantic processing of pictures of animals and tools: Electrophysiological evidence on the organization of knowledge in the human brain

Semantic processing of pictures of animals and tools: Electrophysiological evidence on the organization of knowledge in the human brain

Semantic processing of pictures of animals and tools: Event-related fMRI evidence on the organization of knowledge in the human brain

Semantic processing of pictures of animals and tools: Event-related fMRI evidence on the organization of knowledge in the human brain

The Right Hemisphere and Optic Aphasia/Optic Apraxia

Abstract We describe a patient with inordinate impairment in oral picture naming (as opposed to oral naming to definitions and viewed gestures). His naming errors were primarily semantically related or perseverative responses. He also had greater difficulty gesturing in response to viewed pictures than gesturing to verbal commands, and produced many semantic and perseverative gesture errors. He performed relatively well in some visual tasks (e.g. matching, object decision, and drawing), but was impaired on others (e.g. copying pictures). He had intact abilities for basic semantic processing of pictures (category sorting, cross-modal matching), but he demonstrated impairment in picture comprehension tasks requiring more detailed semantic information (matching associated pictures). We propose that this patient's impairment may be classified as optic aphasia and optic apraxia, and not visual associative agnosia in which we expect greater recognition Impairment. Current cognitive models that attempt to explai...

The right hemisphere and optic aphasia/optic apraxia

We describe a patient with inordinate impairment in oral picture naming (as opposed to oral naming to definitions and viewed gestures). His naming errors were primarily semantically related or perseverative responses. He also had greater difficulty gesturing in response to viewed pictures than gesturing to verbal commands, and produced many semantic and perseverative gesture errors. He performed relatively well in some visual tasks (e.g. matching, object decision, and drawing), but was impaired on others (e.g. copying pictures). He had intact abilities for basic semantic processing of pictures (category sorting, cross-modal matching), but he demonstrated impairment in picture comprehension tasks requiring more detailed semantic information (matching associated pictures). We propose that this patient's impairment may be classified as optic aphasia and optic apraxia, and not visual associative agnosia in which we expect greater recognition Impairment. Current cognitive models that attempt to explain optic aphasia would have difficulty accounting entirely for this patient's impairments. We suggest that the information gained from right hemisphere visual processing is unable fully to activate and specify phonological and gestural output representations in the left hemisphere, either directly or by way of right hemisphere semantic processing.

Semantic Processing of Pictures and Spoken Words: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials

Semantic associations between pictures and their verbal referents were assessed in a reaction time (RT) experiment where pictures and words acted both as primes and targets. Behavioral RTs and accuracy were recorded from 20 adult subjects along with the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) recorded from two midline and 10 lateral electrode sites. Behavioral effects were inconclusive, but the ERPs to target stimuli varied as a function of whether the priming stimulus was semantically related or unrelated to the target. The ERPs elicited to unrelated picture targets and unrelated word targets were more negative than their related counterparts and fit the characteristics of the N400 during all but the initial phase of differential processing. The differences in scalp distribution in the initial phases appear to reflect the processing of nonidentical sensory-specific mechanisms; the common later peak activity reflects the processing of a single common semantic processor.

Effects of type of input and type of processing on recall hypermnesia.

Abstract Twenty undergraduates participated in one of six conditions representing two types of input (words, pictures) and three types of initial processing: imagery (generate object imagery or real - world imagery), semantic (rate pleasantness or form a verbal association), and physical (rate complexity or judge the presence of a feature). After viewing 70 items, subjects attempted to recall them four times. Except for physical processing of words, the number of items correctly recalled improved over trials, demonstrating hypermnesia. Intrusions increased over trials in most conditions and appeared later within a trial for words than for pictures. Of five alternative accounts of hypermnesia, these results favour the sensory/semantic model of memory coding.Resume Vingt etudiants du premier cycle ont pris part a une de six situations representant deux types d'intrants (mots, images) et trois types de traitement initial: images mentales (creer une imagerie d'objet ou une imagerie reelle), semantique (evaluer le caractere agreable ou etablir une association verbale), et physique (evaluer la complexite ou juger de la presence d'un trait caracteristique). Apres avoir regarde 70 articles, les sujets ont essaye de se les rappeler quatre fois. Sauf pour le traitement physique des mots, le nombre d'articles correctement rememores s'est ameliore d'un essai a l'autre, ce qui demontre l'hypermnesie. Les intrusions ont augmente d'un essai a l'autre dans la plupart des situations et sont apparues plus tard dans les essais portant sur des mots que sur ceux portant sur des images. A partir de cinq comptes rendus possibles d'hypermnesie, il semble que ces resultats favorisent le modele sensoriel/semantique de codage de la memoire.Change in recall over repeated trials has been of interest throughout the century of experimental psychology (Payne, 1987), particularly since the work of Erdelyi and Becker (1974). To control for the possibility of a progressively relaxed response criterion, they required subjects to produce a high fixed number of nonrepeating responses on each recall attempt. Over three trials, recall remained constant for concrete words but improved for pictures. Erdelyi and Becker called this improvement hypermnesia.On the assumption that recall involves a two - step process in which candidate items are generated then judged as correct or incorrect, Erdelyi and Becker suggested that retrieved picture input was almost perfectly recognized, leading to clear marking in memory and, on later trials, to faster recall of previous responses, giving extra time to search memory for unrecovered items. However, recognition of retrieved word input was poorer than that of pictures, leading to more incorrect responses (intrusions), and to less accurate marking. Because some subjects reported forming visual images during presentation and showed improved word recall over trials, Erdelyi and Becker also speculated that coding modality, not input modality, might be the critical factor in hypermnesia.In an extensive review, Payne (1987) concluded that picture hypermnesia is robust, but that word hypermnesia only occurs with imagery or semantic processing. If pictures are usually processed semantically (Erdelyi, Buschke, & Finkelstein, 1977), this implies that the critical factor in hypermnesia may be type of processing. Imagery and semantic processing both involve stimulus elaboration or richer coding, creating multiple retrieval cues (Craik & Tulving, 1975) that may be accessed on repeated trials (Roediger, Payne, Gillespie, & Lean, 1982). It follows that hypermnesia should not differ between imagery and semantic processing of pictures or words, and that it should not occur at all with physical or nonsemantic processing.The finding that single - trial free recall is higher for pictures than for words (e.g., Paivio, Rogers, & Smythe, 1968) could thus be attributed to depth of processing. …

Hunting for individual differences in cognitive processes: Verbal ability and semantic processing of pictures and words

Semantic category decisions were examined for single picture and word stimuli. Consistent with previous research, pictures yielded faster latencies than words and both showed significant taxonomic frequency effects for positive decisions. The results are interpreted in terms of general models for semantic verification, in which both pictures and words involve access to the same underlying semantic knowledge base. The latter conclusion was supported by correlation-regression analyses on individual item latencies. Variations in processing latency as a function of stimulus mode, taxonomic frequency, and type of decision were analyzed with respect to adult individual differences in verbal ability, The results uniformly failed to show a significant relationship between verbal ability and any processing speed measure. The lack of any significant relationship is discussed in light of previous results on verbal ability and processing speed, suggesting obvious qualifications of past results and possible reinterpretations of the meaning of previously obtained speed differences.

Developmental changes in the semantic processing of pictures and words

Second- and fifth-graders' semantic decision times for pictures and words were analyzed relative to the predictions derived from unitary- and dual-memory models. At both grade levels, word-word response latencies were greater than picture-word latencies which, in turn, were greater than picture-picture latencies. An interaction between Grade and Condition indicated that verbal access times decreased more than pictorial access times. The data fit the predictions of a memory model postulating category storage in a single memory system as opposed to simultaneous representation in verbal and nonverbal memory systems. It was concluded that with increasing experience verbal access to this single semantic system is more rapid.