Automatic processing of taxonomic and thematic relations in semantic priming — Differentiation by early N400 and late frontal negativity

Most current models of knowledge organization are based on hierarchical (plant-pine) or taxonomic categories (animal-plant). Another important organizational pattern is thematic categories, which performs external or complementary roles in the same scenario or event (bee-honey). The goal of this study was to explore the processing of hierarchical categories and thematic categories under automatic processing conditions that minimize strategic influences. The Evoked response potential (ERP) procedure was used to examine the time course of semantic priming for category members with a short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 300ms as participants performed a lexical decision task. Six experimental conditions were compared: hierarchical relations (offspring-grandson), internal features (gold-golden), productive relations (bee-honey), script relations (room-tenant), unrelated (star-spoon), and non-word trials (star-derf). We found faster reaction times for related prime-target pairs than unrelated pairs except for productive relations. The ERP data showed that an early N400 effect (200-400ms) was more negative for unrelated words than for all related words. Furthermore, a frontal negativity (400-550ms) elicited by productive relations was smaller (more positive) than other related words. We suggest that the smaller frontal negativity in the processing of productive relations indicates their increased salience in knowledge structure compared to less prominent hierarchical relations. Indeed, the allocation of attentional resources and subsequent recruitment of additional memory processing might be two of the hallmarks of thematic relations.

[1]  Miriam Bassok,et al.  What Makes a Man Similar to a Tie? Stimulus Compatibility with Comparison and Integration , 1999, Cognitive Psychology.

[2]  Ken A Paller,et al.  Neural correlates of conceptual implicit memory and their contamination of putative neural correlates of explicit memory. , 2007, Learning & memory.

[3]  David I. Donaldson,et al.  Electrophysiological evidence for the influence of unitization on the processes engaged during episodic retrieval: Enhancing familiarity based remembering , 2007, Neuropsychologia.

[4]  Z. Estes,et al.  Thematic thinking : the apprehension and consequences of thematic relations , 2011 .

[5]  M. Rugg,et al.  Event-related potentials and recognition memory , 2007, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[6]  M. Kutas,et al.  Reading senseless sentences: brain potentials reflect semantic incongruity. , 1980, Science.

[7]  J. H. Neely,et al.  Semantic priming modulates the N400, N300, and N400RP , 2007, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[8]  S. Krach,et al.  Taxonomic and thematic categories: Neural correlates of categorization in an auditory-to-visual priming task using fMRI , 2009, Brain Research.

[9]  H. Kolk,et al.  Accessing world knowledge: evidence from N400 and reaction time priming. , 2005, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[10]  Joel L. Voss,et al.  Fluent Conceptual Processing and Explicit Memory for Faces Are Electrophysiologically Distinct , 2006, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[11]  Asaid Khateb,et al.  Processing of semantic categorical and associative relations: an ERP mapping study. , 2003, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[12]  Marilyn K. Strube,et al.  Automatic vs. controlled processes in semantic priming--differentiation by event-related potentials. , 2002, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[13]  Barbara A. Spellman,et al.  Analogical priming via semantic relations , 2001, Memory & cognition.

[14]  M. Kiefer,et al.  Cognitive Neuroscience: Tracking the time course of object categorization using event-related potentials , 1999 .

[15]  T. Ferrée,et al.  EEG theta and alpha responses reveal qualitative differences in processing taxonomic versus thematic semantic relationships , 2010, Brain and Language.

[16]  Hong Li,et al.  How do taxonomic versus thematic relations impact similarity and difference judgments? An ERP study. , 2013, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[17]  Gregory L. Murphy,et al.  Thematic relations in adults' concepts. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[18]  Marta Kutas,et al.  Tracking the Time Course of Meaning Activation , 1988 .

[19]  Carsten Elbro,et al.  The ability to learn new word meanings from context by school-age children with and without language comprehension difficulties , 2003, Journal of Child Language.

[20]  T. Curran.  Brain potentials of recollection and familiarity , 2000, Memory & cognition.

[21]  D. Done,et al.  Overinclusive thought and loosening of associations are not unique to schizophrenia and are produced in Alzheimer's dementia , 2009, Cognitive neuropsychiatry.

[22]  Mary-Ellen Large,et al.  Electrophysiological correlates of object categorization: back to basics. , 2004, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[23]  Markus Kiefer,et al.  Right Hemisphere Activation during Indirect Semantic Priming: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials , 1998, Brain and Language.

[24]  Thematic relations in adults' concepts and categorization , 1996 .

[25]  Kara D. Federmeier,et al.  Thirty years and counting: finding meaning in the N400 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP). , 2011, Annual review of psychology.

[26]  Allan Collins,et al.  A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing , 1975 .

[27]  Ning Zhong,et al.  ERP characteristics of sentential inductive reasoning in time and frequency domains , 2010, Cognitive Systems Research.

[28]  M Spitzer,et al.  Electrophysiological correlates of direct versus indirect semantic priming in normal volunteers. , 1999, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[29]  Colin M. Brown,et al.  Lexical-semantic event-related potential effects in patients with left hemisphere lesions and aphasia, and patients with right hemisphere lesions without aphasia. , 1996, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[30]  G. Murphy,et al.  Thematic relations in adults' concepts. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[31]  Murray Grossman,et al.  Category-specific effects in semantic memory: Category–task interactions suggested by fMRI , 2006, NeuroImage.

[32]  Colin M. Brown,et al.  The N400 as a function of the level of processing. , 1995, Psychophysiology.

[33]  M. Weisbrod,et al.  SOA-dependent N400 and P300 semantic priming effects using pseudoword primes and a delayed lexical decision. , 2005, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[34]  J. H. Neely.  Semantic priming effects in visual word recognition: A selective review of current findings and theories. , 1991 .

[35]  Marina Schmid,et al.  An Introduction To The Event Related Potential Technique , 2016 .

[36]  Wayne D. Gray,et al.  Basic objects in natural categories , 1976, Cognitive Psychology.

[37]  S. Luck.  An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique , 2005 .

[38]  D. Medin,et al.  The role of theories in conceptual coherence. , 1985, Psychological review.

[39]  Tilo Kircher,et al.  Automatic processing of semantic relations in fMRI: Neural activation during semantic priming of taxonomic and thematic categories , 2008, Brain Research.

[40]  Zachary Estes,et al.  Individual differences in the perception of similarity and difference , 2008, Cognition.

[41]  Margot J. Taylor,et al.  Guidelines for using human event-related potentials to study cognition: recording standards and publication criteria. , 2000, Psychophysiology.

[42]  D. Donaldson,et al.  Association and not semantic relationships elicit the N400 effect: electrophysiological evidence from an explicit language comprehension task. , 2007, Psychophysiology.