Differential effects of learned associations with words and pseudowords on event-related brain potentials

Abstract

Associated stimulus valence affects neural responses at an early processing stage. However, in the field of written language processing, it is unclear whether semantics of a word or low-level visual features affect early neural processing advantages. The current study aimed to investigate the role of semantic content on valence association. Participants completed a learning session to associate either words (Experiment 1, N=24) or pseudowords (Experiment 2, N=24) with a certain valence (gain-associated, neutral or loss-associated). Behavioural and neural response changes based on the associated valence were investigated in a separate test session. Gainassociated stimuli were learned fastest. Response times were faster towards gain-and lossassociated than neutral stimuli if they were words, but not pseudowords. Early P1 effects of associated valence occurred for both pseudowords and words. Specifically, loss-associated valence resulted in increased P1 amplitudes to pseudowords, compared to decreased amplitudes to words. Although visual features are likely to explain P1 effects for pseudowords, the inversed effect for words suggests that semantic content affects associative learning, potentially leading to stronger valence associations.

Money or smiles: Independent ERP effects of associated monetary reward and happy faces

“…ERPs were recorded to compare the effects of the factors expressions, outcome and their potential interaction over different stages of face processing. Replicating previous findings, we hypothesized reward associations to be learned faster than zero-outcome-associations (Hammerschmidt, Sennhenn-Reulen, et al, 2017;Kulke, Bayer, Grimm, & Schacht, 2017;Rossi et al, 2017), as well as faster reaction times for reward compared to zero-outcome-associations (Hammerschmidt, Sennhenn-Reulen, et al, 2017). In line with the literature, happy faces were expected to trigger the typical emotion-related EPN component (e.g., Rellecke et al, 2012;Sato et al, 2001) both in the learning and consolidation phase.…”

情绪词加工过程及其情绪效应特点：erp的证据

“…。 事件相关电 位(Event-Related Potential, ERP)具有较高的时间 分 辨 率 , 能 为情 绪 词 的 加 工 提 供 非 常 精 确 的 时 程 信 息 , 可 以有 效 区 分 受 情 绪 信 息 影 响 的 视 觉 词 汇 加 工 的 不 同 阶 段 , 因 此在 情 绪 词 研 究 中 受 到 了 学 者 们 的 青 睐 , 同 时 也涌 现 了 许 多 重 要 的 (Hinojosa et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2014) Bayer, M., Grass, A., & Schacht, A. (2018).…”