Work

How word frequency modulates masked repetition priming: An ERP investigation

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to provide precise temporal information about the modulation of masked repetition priming effects × word frequency during the course of target word recognition. Contrary to the pattern seen with behavioral response times in prior research, we predicted that high-frequency words should generate larger and earlier peaking repetition priming effects than low-frequency words in the N400 time window. This prediction was supported by the results of two experiments. Furthermore, repetition priming effects in the N250 time window were found for low-frequency words in both experiments, whereas for high-frequency words these effects were seen only at the shorter (50 ms stimulus onset asynchrony [SOA]) used in Experiment 2, and not in Experiment 1 (70 ms SOA). We explain this pattern as resulting from reset mechanisms operating on the form representations activated by prime stimuli when primes and targets are processed as separate perceptual events.

Source: Psychophysiology

DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01337.x

Authors: Jonathan Grainger, Danielle Lopez, Marianna Eddy, Stéphane Dufau, Phillip J. Holcomb

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Aix-Marseille Université, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: G1643793975, The cognitive neuroscience of word comprehension, The Neuro-cognition of Word Comprehension, The Cognitive Neuroscience of Second Language Acquisition, G6967478585