Impaired semantic processing during task-set switching: evidence from the N400 in rapid serial visual presentation.

The cognitive system is able to reconfigure mental resources flexibly to adapt to new a task. While task-set switching is known to be detrimental to behavioral performance, less is known about the precise loci of these effects on stimulus processing. We measured event-related potentials to explore the neural consequences of task-set switching on semantic processing. We examined the context-sensitive N400 component evoked by the second of two target words embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation under conditions that involved either a task-set switch or no switching. Whereas the N400 was unaffected by the lag separating the targets in the absence of switching, it was delayed and attenuated in the switch condition when the targets were adjacent in the sequence. These findings indicate that task-set reconfiguration temporarily prevents semantic activation and provide evidence for the nonautomaticity of semantic processing of words.

[1]  M. Heil,et al.  Automatic Semantic Activation Is No Myth , 2004, Psychological science.

[2]  Sander Martens,et al.  Blinks of the mind: memory effects of attentional processes. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

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

[4]  Chris Oriet,et al.  Absence of perceptual processing during reconfiguration of task set. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[5]  N. Lavie.  Distracted and confused?: Selective attention under load , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[6]  J. Enns,et al.  The attentional blink is not a unitary phenomenon , 2006, Psychological research.

[7]  Kara D. Federmeier,et al.  Electrophysiology reveals semantic memory use in language comprehension , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[8]  P. Holcomb.  Automatic and attentional processing: An event-related brain potential analysis of semantic priming , 1988, Brain and Language.

[9]  M. Rugg.  The effects of semantic priming and work repetition on event-related potentials. , 1985, Psychophysiology.

[10]  Derek Besner,et al.  Role of set in visual word recognition: Activation and activation blocking as nonautomatic processes. , 1996 .

[11]  Barry Giesbrecht,et al.  Electrophysiological Evidence for Both Perceptual and Postperceptual Selection during the Attentional Blink , 2007, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[12]  C. C. Wood,et al.  Event-related potentials, lexical decision and semantic priming. , 1985, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[13]  M. Kutas,et al.  Views on how the electrical activity that the brain generates reflects the functions of different language structures. , 1997, Psychophysiology.

[14]  S. Monsell,et al.  Costs of a predictible switch between simple cognitive tasks. , 1995 .

[15]  R. West,et al.  Neural correlates of cue retrieval, task set reconfiguration, and rule mapping in the explicit cue task switching paradigm. , 2008, Psychophysiology.

[16]  V Di Lollo,et al.  Attentional requirements is visual detection and identification: evidence from the attentional blink. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[17]  Pierre Jolicoeur,et al.  Intramodal and crossmodal processing delays in the attentional blink paradigm revealed by event-related potentials. , 2008, Psychophysiology.

[18]  Werner Sommer,et al.  Semantic processing of unattended meaning is modulated by additional task load: evidence from electrophysiology. , 2005, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[19]  James T. Enns,et al.  Visual masking and task switching in the attentional blink , 2001 .

[20]  M. Potter,et al.  The time course of competition for attention: attention is initially labile. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[21]  E. Vogel,et al.  Delayed working memory consolidation during the attentional blink , 2002, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[22]  Jeff Miller,et al.  Using the jackknife-based scoring method for measuring LRP onset effects in factorial designs. , 2001, Psychophysiology.

[23]  Jeff Miller,et al.  Measurement of ERP latency differences: a comparison of single-participant and jackknife-based scoring methods. , 2008, Psychophysiology.

[24]  Barry Giesbrecht,et al.  Personal names do not always survive the attentional blink: Behavioral evidence for a flexible locus of selection , 2009, Vision Research.

[25]  E. Ruthruff,et al.  On the nonautomaticity of visual word processing: electrophysiological evidence that word processing requires central attention. , 2008, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[26]  K L Shapiro,et al.  Temporary suppression of visual processing in an RSVP task: an attentional blink? . , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[27]  V. Ramaswamy,et al.  Fingerprint of ozone depletion in the spatial and temporal pattern of recent lower-stratospheric cooling , 1996, Nature.

[28]  J. Driver,et al.  Priming from the Attentional Blink: A Failure to Extract Visual Tokens but Not Visual Types , 1997 .

[29]  Dylan M. Jones,et al.  Task-set reconfiguration suspends perceptual processing: evidence from semantic priming during the attentional blink. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[30]  P. Holcomb.  Semantic priming and stimulus degradation: implications for the role of the N400 in language processing. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[31]  Roger W. Remington,et al.  A dual-task investigation of automaticity in visual word processing. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[32]  Kristina Küper,et al.  Electrophysiology reveals semantic priming at a short SOA irrespective of depth of prime processing , 2009, Neuroscience Letters.

[33]  E. Vogel,et al.  Word meanings can be accessed but not reported during the attentional blink , 1996, Nature.

[34]  M C Potter,et al.  Two attentional deficits in serial target search: the visual attentional blink and an amodal task-switch deficit. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[35]  Derek Besner,et al.  On the Myth of Automatic Semantic Activation in Reading , 1999 .

[36]  Peter Hagoort,et al.  The Processing Nature of the N400: Evidence from Masked Priming , 1993, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[37]  Edward K. Vogel,et al.  Pushing around the Locus of Selection: Evidence for the Flexible-selection Hypothesis , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[38]  Matthew F. S. Rushworth,et al.  Components of Switching Intentional Set , 2002, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[39]  Werner Sommer,et al.  Effects of additional tasks on language perception: an event-related brain potential investigation. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[40]  Ellen F. Lau,et al.  A cortical network for semantics: (de)constructing the N400 , 2008, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

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

[42]  Walter F. Bischof,et al.  Attentional switching in spatial and nonspatial domains : Evidence from the attentional blink , 1999 .

[43]  K. Sakai.  Task set and prefrontal cortex. , 2008, Annual review of neuroscience.

[44]  V. Lollo,et al.  Beyond the attentional blink: visual masking by object substitution. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[45]  R. Dell’Acqua,et al.  The Demonstration of Short-Term Consolidation , 1998, Cognitive Psychology.

[46]  Katherine A. Rawson,et al.  Category Norms: An Updated and Expanded Version of the Battig and Montague (1969) Norms. , 2004 .

[47]  E Hennighausen,et al.  Missed prime words within the attentional blink evoke an N400 semantic priming effect. , 2001, Psychophysiology.

[48]  David E. Meyer,et al.  Executive control of cognitive processes in task switching. , 2001 .

[49]  James T. Enns,et al.  Task switching mediates the attentional blink even without backward masking , 2003, Perception & psychophysics.

[50]  Alan Allport,et al.  Task-switching: using RSVP methods to study an experimenter-cued shift of set , 2001 .

[51]  K. Shapiro,et al.  The attentional blink , 1997, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[52]  Rolf Ulrich,et al.  Why jackknifing yields good latency estimates. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[53]  A. Friederici.  Event-related brain potential studies in language , 2004, Current neurology and neuroscience reports.

[54]  V. Lollo,et al.  The attentional blink is governed by a temporary loss of control , 2006, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[55]  P. Jolicoeur,et al.  Four-dot masking produces the attentional blink , 2003, Vision Research.

[56]  W. Maki,et al.  Associative priming by targets and distractors during rapid serial visual presentation: does word meaning survive the attentional blink? , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[57]  G. Houghton,et al.  ERP analyses of task effects on semantic processing from words. , 2005, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[58]  Paul D. Kieffaber,et al.  Event-related potential correlates of task switching and switch costs. , 2005, Psychophysiology.

[59]  Ritske de Jong,et al.  THE ROLE OF PREPARATION IN OVERLAPPING-TASK PERFORMANCE , 1995 .

[60]  Juan Botella,et al.  Task- and location-switching effects on visual attention , 2004, Perception & psychophysics.

[61]  S. Tremblay,et al.  Modality-specific and amodal sources of interference in the attentional blink , 2008, Perception & psychophysics.

[62]  P. Holcomb,et al.  Event-related brain potentials elicited by syntactic anomaly , 1992 .

[63]  Darryl W. Schneider,et al.  Defining task-set reconfiguration: The case of reference point switching , 2007, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[64]  G. Woodman,et al.  Neural fate of ignored stimuli: dissociable effects of perceptual and working memory load , 2004, Nature Neuroscience.

[65]  Harold Pashler,et al.  Perceptual and Central Interference in Dual-Task Performance , 2001 .

[66]  E. Vogel,et al.  Electrophysiological Evidence for a Postperceptual Locus of Suppression during the Attentional Blink Time-based Attention and the Attentional Blink , 1998 .

[67]  Sabine Kastner,et al.  Visual attention as a multilevel selection process , 2004, Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience.

[68]  R. Marois,et al.  The attentional blink: A review of data and theory , 2009, Attention, perception & psychophysics.

[69]  Pierre Jolicœur,et al.  Dual-task interference and visual encoding , 1999 .

[70]  J. Enns,et al.  The attentional blink: Resource depletion or temporary loss of control? , 2005, Psychological research.

[71]  Kara D. Federmeier.  Thinking ahead: the role and roots of prediction in language comprehension. , 2007, Psychophysiology.