Biomedical subjects

Annette Hohlfeld

Publications and source records attributed to Annette Hohlfeld.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Semantics prevalence over syntax during sentence processing: a brain potential study of noun-adjective agreement in Spanish.

A review of the literature about the interplay of syntax and semantics, using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), revealed that the results are highly heterogeneous, owing to several possible variables. An experiment was conducted with Spanish sentences that factorially combined syntactic and semantic violations in the same sentence-intermediate adjective and controlled for working memory demands, variables that in previous studies have rarely been taken into consideration. Violations consisted in noun-adjective number or gender disagreements (syntactic violation), noun-adjective semantic incompatibility (semantic violation), or both (combined violation). The N400 to semantic violations was unaffected by additional syntactic violations. The P600/SPS component, considered to reflect syntactic processes, was elicited by both single syntactic and semantic violations but seemed to be diminished in combined violations relative to single syntactic violations. These results suggest that under the conditions of the present experiment semantic information may have a prevailing role over syntactic information.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Semantic processing of unattended meaning is modulated by additional task load: evidence from electrophysiology.

Recently, we observed that the perception of word meaning, as measured with the N400 component of the event-related brain potential, is delayed but unimpaired by various additional tasks when the language task requires the processing of semantic properties of the word stimuli. In the present study, we assessed whether similar effects would be observed when the language task relates to acoustic rather than to semantic properties of the word stimuli. The N400 was elicited by synonymous and non-synonymous spoken noun pairs that were to be classified according to tone pitch. In a single task experiment, there was a small but clear synonymity effect in ERPs (N400), indicating the availability of word meaning to the semantic system. Additional processing load, imposed by an overlapping task, abolished N400 for all SOAs when stimulus-response assignments were incompatible. For compatible assignments, N400 amplitude was present but much attenuated at the longest SOA. We conclude that the availability of task-irrelevant meaning is modulated by additional task load and decay in short-term memory.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Is word perception in a second language more vulnerable than in one's native language? Evidence from brain potentials in a dual task setting.

We assessed the effect of additional tasks on language perception in second-language and native speakers. The N400 component of the event-related potential was recorded to spoken nouns that had to be judged for synonymity with a preceding word, while additional choice responses were required to visual stimuli. In both participant groups N400 was delayed as a function of temporal overlap with the additional task. In second-language speakers there was a global delay of N400 independent of additional task load and a decrease of accuracy at highest overlap. These findings are interpreted within a single channel account of language perception.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Effects of additional tasks on language perception: an event-related brain potential investigation.

The authors investigated effects of task and overlapping processing load on semantic processing. In 3 experiments the brain potential component N400 was elicited by synonymous and nonsynonymous spoken noun pairs that were to be classified according to semantic relatedness. The time course of the N400 component to the nouns was delayed, and its amplitude was reduced when additional tasks had to be performed. The delay increased with temporal overlap and was more pronounced for language-related than for spatial additional tasks. Delays of N400 were also caused by a compatibility manipulation in the additional tasks. Theoretical accounts of the observed interference of overlapping tasks with language perception in terms of attentional shifts were discarded. Explanations in terms of resource sharing and single channel processing are discussed.

Adult↗