No abstract

Heterogeneous effects of semantic distance in language production have sparked a debate on the central assumption of many language production models, namely that lexical selection is a competitive process. In the present ERP study, we manipulated semantic distance in the picture word interference (PWI) paradigm systematically within taxonomic hierarchies. Target-distractor pairs were either closely related members of the same basic level category, hence sharing many semantic features (e.g., orangutan and gorilla), or distantly related members of the same superordinate category, sharing fewer features (e.g., orangutan and horse). Across related conditions, broad category membership (e.g., animals) was kept constant. Naming times reflected a systematic increase of semantic interference as semantic distance decreased. Early and later ERP modulations related to the semantic distance manipulation were observed at posterior regions starting at 234 ms and with an additional fronto-central cluster starting at 346 ms. Early effects are interpreted as indexing lexical selection while the late effects may reflect an N400-like component. Taking the behavioral and ERP modulations together, these results are in line with models of lexical selection that include an early competitive lexical selection process. (PsycINFO Database Record

Affective information about other people's social behavior may prejudice social interactions and bias person judgments. The trustworthiness of person-related information, however, can vary considerably, as in the case of gossip, rumours, lies, or so-called "fake news". Here, we investigated how spontaneous person-likability and explicit person judgments are influenced by trustworthiness, employing event-related potentials as indexes of emotional brain responses. Social-emotional information about the (im)moral behaviour of previously unknown persons was verbally presented as trustworthy fact, (e.g. "He bullied his apprentice") or marked as untrustworthy gossip (by adding e.g. allegedly), using verbal qualifiers that are frequently used in conversations, news and social media to indicate the questionable trustworthiness of the information and as a precaution against wrong accusations. In Experiment 1, spontaneous likability, deliberate person judgments and electrophysiological measures of emotional person evaluation were strongly influenced by negative information, yet remarkably unaffected by the trustworthiness of the information. Experiment 2 replicated these findings and extended them to positive information. Our findings demonstrate a tendency for strong emotional evaluations and person judgments even when they are knowingly based on unclear evidence.

No abstract

No abstract