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Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
Published on: February 8, 2019
Conscious intention to speak proactively facilitates lexical access during overt object naming
Kristof Strijkers1, Phillip J Holcomb, Albert Costa
1Universitat de Barcelona, Dept. Psicologia Bàsica, Vall D'Hebron 171, Barcelona 08035, Spain.
Journal of Memory and Language
|September 17, 2013
Summary
The intention to speak rapidly activates word retrieval (lexical access) during object naming. This brain process occurs earlier than during non-verbal categorization, showing proactive word facilitation.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience of Language
Background:
- Understanding the precise timing and mechanisms of language production is crucial for cognitive science.
- The role of top-down intention in modulating early stages of speech production, particularly lexical access, remains an active area of research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the temporal dynamics of lexical access influenced by the intention to speak.
- To compare brain responses during overt object naming versus non-verbal object categorization concerning word frequency effects.
Main Methods:
- Utilized event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to measure electrical brain activity.
- Compared ERPs elicited by high- and low-frequency object names during overt naming and non-verbal categorization tasks.
Main Results:
- Word frequency effects emerged significantly earlier (152 ms) during object naming compared to non-verbal categorization (200 ms).
- The brain response patterns differed qualitatively between the naming and categorization tasks, particularly concerning frequency effects.
Conclusions:
- The conscious intention to speak proactively facilitates lexical access, enabling rapid word retrieval.
- Top-down intention plays a critical role in speeding up and shaping the neural processes underlying word production.
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