Language planning processing in schizophrenia using the active or passive voice.
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Adult↗
Biomedical subjects
M E Pratarelli
Publications and source records attributed to M E Pratarelli.
Modulation of semantic processing using word length and complexity: an ERP study.
The objective of this study was to assess changes in semantic priming in two experiments which separately manipulated word length and the location of a semantic incongruence within spoken compound words. All words began 1500 ms after the presentation of related, partially unrelated, or totally unrelated picture-primes. Using a picture of a dogbone as an example, either the spoken words DOGBONE, WISHBONE, DOGHOUSE, or MAILBOX could occur as targets (underscores indicate semantically unrelated parts). In practice, only one of the four possible targets occurred with each prime. Subjects made speeded responses by pressing one of two buttons (related/unrelated) while event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were collected from various scalp locations. The behavioral analyses of response time and accuracy were sensitive to changes in word length, but inconclusive for semantic relatedness. However, repeated-measures ANOVAs of peak amplitude, latency, and mean area amplitude of the N400 ERP revealed significant effects of word length and semantic priming. Comparison of related compounds with partially unrelated word-initial violations of context (e.g., WISHBONE) revealed diminished activity following the peak of the N400. Comparison of partially unrelated word-final contextual violations (e.g., DOGHOUSE) revealed an N400 effect delayed by approximately the mean length of the word-initial component. These results demonstrate the dynamic sensitivity of the cortical semantic processor.
Adolescent↗
Effects of gender on perception of spatial illusions.
Popular theories explaining performance differences between males and females generally predict that females tend to outperform males on certain perceptual and linguistic tasks, while males outperform females on tasks involving visual-spatial skills. 28 males and females were shown commercially available computer-generated 3-dimensional illusions in which the hidden object(s) varied in complexity. Although females reported more prior experience with this form of art, males were about four times faster at identifying the illusions at all levels of difficulty.
Adult↗
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.
Adolescent↗