Biomedical subjects

M F Damian

Publications and source records attributed to M F Damian.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Effects of semantic context in the naming of pictures and words.

Two experiments investigated whether lexical retrieval for speaking can be characterized as a competitive process by assessing the effects of semantic context on picture and word naming in German. In Experiment 1 we demonstrated that pictures are named slower in the context of same-category items than in the context of items from various semantic categories, replicating findings by Kroll and Stewart (Journal of Memory and Language, 33 (1994) 149). In Experiment 2 we used words instead of pictures. Participants either named the words in the context of same- or different-category items, or produced the words together with their corresponding determiner. While in the former condition words were named faster in the context of same-category items than of different-category items, the opposite pattern was obtained for the latter condition. These findings confirm the claim that the interfering effect of semantic context reflects competition in the retrieval of lexical entries in speaking.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2001

Congruity effects evoked by subliminally presented primes: automaticity rather than semantic processing.

In a size judgment task on words denoting concrete objects, subliminally presented stimuli that preceded the targets influenced response times and were dependent on whether responses to the prime and the target were congruent or incongruent (Experiment 1). These findings, mirroring S. Dehaene et al. (1998), imply that primes are unconsciously categorized and processed to the response stage. However, the effect does not generalize to primes that are not in the response set (Experiment 2), and even exposure to primes not in the response set in an interleaved naming-size judgment task fails to induce it (Experiment 3). However, the effect generalizes from lowercase primes to the same set of uppercase targets (Experiment 4), suggesting an abstract level of operation. The findings suggest that rather than resulting from unconscious prime categorization, the congruity effect results from automatized stimulus-response mappings. Potential differences between the number and the word domain are discussed.

Automatism↗

PubMed2000

Semantic negative priming in picture categorization and naming.

Ignoring a particular stimulus can hamper subsequent attended processing of the same stimulus, a phenomenon known as 'negative priming'. Previous research has yielded partial support for the claim that the effect results from the attentional inhibition of central representations, as suggested by the fact that it appears to extend to semantic associates of ignored stimuli. In the current experiment, participants categorized or named pictorial stimuli with superimposed distractor pictures; the effect of unrelated, identical, or categorically related previously ignored pictures was investigated. Furthermore, visual similarity between categorically related picture pairs was manipulated in the naming task. The results indicated negative priming from identical ignored pictures irrespective of task. However, semantic negative priming was observed in the categorization task only. In the naming task, even visual overlap between categorically related picture pairs failed to induce negative priming. These findings argue against a central locus of the negative priming effect.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

The relation of phoneme discrimination, lexical access, and short-term memory: A case study and interactive activation account.

A brain-damaged patient (AP) is reported who had a strong tendency to identify nonwords as words on auditory lexical decision and to lexicalize nonwords in repetition, yet who showed a normal ability to perceive individual phonemes. It was initially hypothesized that these findings could be accounted for in terms of disrupted lexical phonological representations. This hypothesis was rejected on the basis of an interactive activation model of word recognition which revealed that modifications at the lexical level did not mimic the patient's pattern of results. Instead, it was found that increasing the rate of decay of activation at the phoneme level produced output that was consistent with the phoneme discrimination, lexical decision, and repetition results. This hypothesis of increased phoneme level decay led to the prediction that speech discrimination would decline with increased interstimulus interval and that short-term memory performance would be impaired. Both predictions were confirmed. The results of this study provide support for an interactive activation model of word recognition with feedback from the lexical to the phonemic level and for a close connection between the processes involved in word recognition and short-term memory.

Aphasia↗

PubMed1999

Semantic and phonological codes interact in single word production.

The relationship between semantic-syntactic and phonological levels in speaking was investigated using a picture naming procedure with simultaneously presented visual or auditory distractor words. Previous results with auditory distractors have been used to support the independent stage model (e.g., H. Schriefers, A. S. Meyer, & W. J. M. Levelt, 1990), whereas results with visual distractors have been used to support an interactive view (e.g., P.A. Starreveld & W. La Heij, 1996b). Experiment 1 demonstrated that with auditory distractors, semantic effects preceded phonological effects, whereas the reverse pattern held for visual distractors. Experiment 2 indicated that the results for visual distractors followed the auditory pattern when distractor presentation time was limited. Experiment 3 demonstrated an interaction between phonological and semantic relatedness of distractors for auditory presentation, supporting an interactive account of lexical access in speaking.

Acoustic Stimulation↗