Examining the Role of General Cognitive Skills in Language Processing: A Window Into Complex Cognition

Federmeier, Kara D.; Jongman, Suzanne R.; Szewczyk, Jakub

doi:10.1177/0963721420964095

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Previous fMRI studies localized orthographic effects based on neighborhood measures (similar to the OLD20 measure used here) to regions implicated in orthographic processing (Braun et al., 2015; Yarkoni, Speer, et al., 2008) and/or to domain general regions (Braun et al., 2015; Fiebach et al., 2007; Yarkoni, Speer, et al., 2008). The sources found here fall into the latter category of regions previously associated with executive functions (e.g., Duncan, 2013), which might support (predictive) language processing (e.g., Federmeier et al., 2020; Ryskin et al., 2020; Ye & Zhou, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Predictive pre‐activation of orthographic and lexical‐semantic representations facilitates visual word recognition

2021

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To a crucial extent, the efficiency of reading results from the fact that visual word recognition is faster in predictive contexts. Predictive coding models suggest that this facilitation results from pre‐activation of predictable stimulus features across multiple representational levels before stimulus onset. Still, it is not sufficiently understood which aspects of the rich set of linguistic representations that are activated during reading—visual, orthographic, phonological, and/or lexical‐semantic—contribute to context‐dependent facilitation. To investigate in detail which linguistic representations are pre‐activated in a predictive context and how they affect subsequent stimulus processing, we combined a well‐controlled repetition priming paradigm, including words and pseudowords (i.e., pronounceable nonwords), with behavioral and magnetoencephalography measurements. For statistical analysis, we used linear mixed modeling, which we found had a higher statistical power compared to conventional multivariate pattern decoding analysis. Behavioral data from 49 participants indicate that word predictability (i.e., context present vs. absent) facilitated orthographic and lexical‐semantic, but not visual or phonological processes. Magnetoencephalography data from 38 participants show sustained activation of orthographic and lexical‐semantic representations in the interval before processing the predicted stimulus, suggesting selective pre‐activation at multiple levels of linguistic representation as proposed by predictive coding. However, we found more robust lexical‐semantic representations when processing predictable in contrast to unpredictable letter strings, and pre‐activation effects mainly resembled brain responses elicited when processing the expected letter string. This finding suggests that pre‐activation did not result in “explaining away” predictable stimulus features, but rather in a “sharpening” of brain responses involved in word processing.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Predictive pre‐activation of orthographic and lexical‐semantic representations facilitates visual word recognition

2021

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“…The active comprehension processes that I described in Section 4 are notable for being facultative—employed strategically and in a manner that seems to require resources that are not readily available to all comprehenders or under all circumstances. Moreover, the kinds of prediction, selection, revision, and sequencing processes that characterize active comprehension are associated with effects that also arise in other domains and that have been linked to general attentional and control systems (see reviews by Aydelott et al., 2005; Federmeier et al., 2020). For example, predictive language contexts yield decreases in alpha power leading up to a potentially predictable stimulus (Rommers et al., 2017)—the same kind of effects that have been linked more generally to attentional allocation (Haegens et al., 2012).…”

Section: Multiple Modes Of Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting and considering: Electrophysiology provides insights into comprehension

Federmeier

2021

Psychophysiology

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As human beings, we experience a world that is infused with meaning. Our everyday environment teems with complex, often ambiguous sensory information, in the form of spoken, signed, and written words, numbers, visual objects, scenes, faces, environmental sounds, odors, and tastes. We respond to such information by rapidly and relatively effortlessly bringing to mind a rich array of knowledge that constitutes our understanding of these inputs and that drives our interactions with them. Uncovering the mechanisms that afford such pervasive and adept linking between perceptual stimuli and distributed, multi-modal information stored in long-term memory lies at the core of building an understanding of human cognition.Within cognitive psychology, meaning processing has often been viewed as contingent on the outcome of a discrete access event, constituting what is termed "recognition" of an input. In classic psycholinguistic models, for

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“…The sources found here fall into the latter category of regions previously associated with executive functions (e.g., Duncan, 2013), which might support (predictive) language processing (e.g., Ye and Zhou, 2009;Federmeier et al, 2020;Ryskin et al, 2020).…”

Section: Neurophysiological Mechanisms Of Context-dependent Facilitationmentioning

confidence: 59%

Predictive pre-activation of orthographic and lexical-semantic representations facilitates visual word recognition

Eisenhauer

Gagl

Fiebach

2020

Preprint

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The efficiency of reading, to a crucial extent, results from the fact that visual word recognition is faster in predictive contexts (like sentences or texts). This observation is consistent with predictive coding models, but it is so far not sufficiently understood which aspects of the rich set of linguistic representations that is activated during reading contribute to this context-dependent facilitation. Candidate representations are visual, orthographic, phonological, and/or lexical-semantic in nature. Our study investigates which representations contribute to efficient word recognition in predictive context with a well-controlled repetition priming paradigm, including words and pseudowords (i.e., pronounceable nonwords), that was combined with magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements in human participants (both sexes). We used high-powered linear mixed modeling to test the hypothesis that context-dependent facilitation relies on the pre-activation of linguistic representations prior to perceiving the expected stimulus. Behavioral data from 49 participants indicate that word predictability (i.e., context present vs. absent) facilitated orthographic and lexical-semantic, but not visual or phonological processes. MEG data from 38 participants show sustained activation of orthographic and lexical-semantic codes in the interval between prime and target, i.e., before processing the predicted stimulus. Also, we found a positive correlation between these pre-activation effects and brain responses elicited when processing the expected letter string. Pre-activation was more stable across time in words than in pseudowords. These results suggest that readers use orthographic and lexical-semantic representations to actively predict upcoming words and that this predictive process is modulated by the presence of prior knowledge (in words as opposed to pseudowords).

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Examining the Role of General Cognitive Skills in Language Processing: A Window Into Complex Cognition

Cited by 17 publications

References 38 publications

Predictive pre‐activation of orthographic and lexical‐semantic representations facilitates visual word recognition

Predictive pre‐activation of orthographic and lexical‐semantic representations facilitates visual word recognition

Connecting and considering: Electrophysiology provides insights into comprehension

Predictive pre-activation of orthographic and lexical-semantic representations facilitates visual word recognition

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