Word recognition and memory are influenced by the semantic associative relationship between words. The free association method has some limitations in establishing lexical semantic associations. Researchers have proposed a new method called co-occurrence association. This study analyzed the semantic association effect and its neural mechanism from the perspective of lexical co-occurrence frequency. The results showed that the number and intensity of semantic association influenced the processing of words. Words with a large number of semantic associations led to an increase in the amplitude of P200 and a decrease in the amplitude of N400. The brain regions involved in semantic association processing are mainly the superior frontal gyrus and the left medial temporal lobe. Future research should discuss the differences between free and co-occurrence association in establishing a semantic association. Based on co-occurrence association, the behavioral characteristics and neural mechanisms of semantic association are further explored. Research on the semantic association effect and neural mechanism from the perspective of co-occurrence association is recommended.

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ConclusionThe findings suggest that emotional nontarget words received greater attentional resources in the attend-emotion words block during the early stages of processing, compared to the attend-neutral word block. Additionally, during the later stages of processing, negative nontarget words were more likely to be processed than positive nontarget words. Overall, these results provide support for the evaluation space model.