Biomedical subjects

Melanie Vitkovitch

Publications and source records attributed to Melanie Vitkovitch.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Will Julia Roberts harm Nicole Kidman? Semantic priming effects during face naming.

Three experiments are reported, which examine whether face naming is vulnerable to semantic competition in a similar way to object naming. Previous experiments with object naming have shown that a related prime picture presented 3 trials before a target picture results in an increase in error rate and naming latencies when compared to unrelated prime conditions. The experiments here use the same paradigm, with errors as the main dependent variable. In Experiment 1, the prime and target faces were from the same occupational category (e.g., politicians, actors), and in Experiment 2, the primes and target faces were also associated to each other. In Experiment 3, the prime was presented as a name to be read aloud. Unrelated filler stimuli intervened between prime and target. In all experiments, there was a reduction in target-naming errors in the related conditions, and in Experiment 3 this was shown to be largely a reduction in naming failures. The results suggest that related name representations for famous people are not activated in parallel and in competition, and that there is some evidence for a relatively long lasting facilitatory effect. These results require some modification to any serial account of face naming to differentiate it from the generally well-established serial account of object naming.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Semantic priming over unrelated trials: evidence for different effects in word and picture naming.

Two naming experiments are reported that replicated previous findings of semantic interference as a result of naming related word or picture primes three trials before picture targets. We also examined whether semantic interference occurred when the materials were reversed and picture or word primes were named before word targets. The interest in semantic interference during word naming followed a suggestion made by Humphreys, Lloyd-Jones, and Fias (1995) that word naming, like picture naming, may be reliant on a semantic route to name retrieval when the two stimuli are mixed. In contrast to their findings, we found no evidence for semantic interference during target word naming; in fact, we found facilitation from related picture primes. No priming was found for the related word prime and word target condition. The data allow us to rule out the possibility that word naming is reliant on a semantic route when mixed with pictures in this priming paradigm and to conclude that there is no clear evidence of semantic activation during word naming. We also conclude, in line with other research, that word naming and picture naming involve different processes.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Stroop interference and negative priming in patients with multiple sclerosis.

The experiment reported represents a preliminary assessment of the ability of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to inhibit distracting stimuli in a selective attention task. Twenty MS and 20 matched control participants were given a card version of the Stroop colour-word interference task. Four conditions were included; neutral (strings of coloured Xs), congruent (colour and word matched), Stroop interference (colour and word conflicted) and ignored repeated (again, conflicting colour and words, but colour on trial n matched the word on trial n-1). Response times (RTs) to 30 trials in each condition were measured to the nearest second. Increased Stroop interference scores were evident for the MS patients relative to the control group. However, a negative priming effect was evident for both MS and control groups; RTs were longer for the ignored repeated condition relative to the Stroop interference condition. This suggests that both groups were able to inhibit distractors on trial n-1, and that increased Stroop interference scores, for MS patients were not due to a complete breakdown of inhibitory processing. Although negative priming effects did not differ across the groups, the possibility of a partial breakdown in inhibitory processes could not be ruled out. Other explanations for increased Stroop interference in MS patients are also briefly considered.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Inhibitory effects during object name retrieval: The effect of interval between prime and target on picture naming responses.

Three picture naming experiments are reported which examine the relationship between the apparent inhibition of a response on one trial, and naming latency on the subsequent trial. The design of each experiment involves the presentation of prime and target pairs, either presented in succession (Lag 1 condition), or separated by two intervening unrelated trials (Lag 3 condition). A control condition is also included. In Experiment 1, a speeded picture naming task is used, and naming errors are analysed. Target pictures are misnamed at above chance rates with the name of the semantically related prime picture in the Lag 3 condition. In contrast, these prime-related errors do not occur in the Lag 1 condition, suggesting a brief inhibitory effect. If primes are briefly inhibited, then target naming latencies immediately following a related prime should be quicker than target latencies in the Lag 3 condition. Experiment 2 confirms this pattern of results, using exactly the same stimuli and design, but standard naming instructions. Experiment 3 examines whether the inferred inhibition is the result of a self-inhibitory mechanism, using a repetition priming paradigm. If Lag 1 prime representations are self-inhibited, then facilitatory effects from prime/target repetition should be stronger in the Lag 3 condition, than in the Lag 1 condition. The data from Expt 3 were not consistent with this prediction. Taken together, the results of the three experiments suggest that a brief inhibitory effect occurs after retrieval of an object name, and that the inhibition may be accomplished by mechanisms other than self-inhibition.

Journal Article↗