A novel multi-word paradigm to assess semantic context effects in uncompromised and impaired language production
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1
Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
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2
Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany
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3
Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Germany
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4
Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
Experimental designs such as the Picture-Word-Interference (PWI) paradigm have consistently demonstrated that categorically related semantic context with single distractor words can inhibit picture naming (e.g. CAT→ [dog]picture). Such semantic interference effects have been extensively studied in healthy speakers to inform word production models (e.g. Glaser & Düngelhoff, 1984, Costa, Alario, & Caramazza, 2005). In peolple with aphasia inhibitory and priming effects can be considered central to further recovery, however studies in this population are still sparse (e.g. Hashimoto & Thompson, 2010).
In the current study, we introduce a novel variant of the PWI paradigm in which we present 8 words prior to a to be named target picture. The number of words categorically related to the picture is varied between 3 and 5. The naming task is combined with eye tracking to investigate how participants process the semantic context words. We aimed to test whether semantic interference can be found with this task and whether the number of related words increases its magnitude. Importantly, we are interested in comparing these effects in healthy and language-impaired participants to further elucidate how semantic competence and word retrieval abilities interact with semantic context effects on language production.
24 healthy German native speakers and so far 23 speakers with aphasia after chronic left-hemispheric acquired brain lesion (>4 months after onset) have been included in this study. A total sample size of 30 speakers with aphasia will be collected by September 2019.
In the healthy population we replicate a small but stable (10ms) interference effect with slower overall naming of pictures categorically related to the distractor set compared to unrelated pictures. Tracking this effect across naming repetitions however, we found that it is prominent at the first naming instance of every picture only and dissipates across the experiment. Moreover, participants profit from the distractor-word cohort being larger, because naming was faster with 4 or 5 than 3 semantically related distractor words.
Pilot data from the aphasic population indicates that the overall interference effect is bigger (35ms) and seems to remain stable or even increase across naming repetitions (see Figure 1).
Regarding eye-tracking our data show that participants fixated longer on semantically related items, indicating a robust identification of the lexico-semantic cohort.
Our findings confirm the validity of the novel paradigm and indicate that besides interference during first exposure, repeated exposure to the semantic context, and a bigger lexical cohort (5 vs 3 words) may facilitate picture naming. Pilot data from 9 people with aphasia proves the feasibility of this paradigm for language-impaired populations and promises exciting results whereby these participants might be more strongly affected by interference from multiple categorical distractor words.
Acknowledgements
During data collection, Cornelia van Scherpenberg was funded by the Berlin School of Mind and Brain and is currently funded by the German National Academic Foundation.
References
Costa, A., Alario, F. X., & Caramazza, A. (2005). On the categorical nature of the semantic interference effect in the picture-word interference paradigm. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 12(1), 125–131.
Glaser, W. R., & Düngelhoff, F. (1984). The Time Course of Picture-Word Interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 10(5), 640–654.
Hashimoto, N., & Thompson, C. K. (2010). The use of the picture–word interference paradigm to examine naming abilities in aphasic individuals. Aphasiology, 24(5), 580–611.
Keywords:
Language production,
Semantic interference,
Picture- word interference,
Aphasia (language),
semantic competence,
categorisation,
Eye- tracking
Conference:
Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting, Macau, Macao, SAR China, 27 Oct - 29 Oct, 2019.
Presentation Type:
Platform presentation
Topic:
Eligible for student award
Citation:
Van Scherpenberg
C,
Abdel Rahman
R and
Obrig
H
(2019). A novel multi-word paradigm to assess semantic context effects in uncompromised and impaired language production.
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2019.01.00074
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Received:
03 May 2019;
Published Online:
09 Oct 2019.
*
Correspondence:
Mx. Cornelia Van Scherpenberg, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, scherpenberg@cbs.mpg.de