Imaging Imageability: Behavioral Effects and Neural Correlates of Its Interaction with Affect and Context

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Psycholinguistics

Background:

• Imageability, the capacity of a word to evoke sensory experiences, is a key linguistic construct.
• Prior research indicates that contextual density and estimated affect may account for behavioral effects linked to imageability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether imageability uniquely contributes to linguistic processing variance beyond contextual density and estimated affect.
• To examine the neural underpinnings of processing imageability, contextual density, and estimated affect.

Main Methods:

• Utilized closely matched stimuli varying in contextual density, estimated affect, and human-judged imageability.
• Analyzed reaction time (RT) data using statistical models.
• Employed graphical models to assess functional connectivity in brain regions involved in processing these linguistic variables.

Main Results:

• A three-way interaction was observed between contextual density, estimated affect, and imageability in explaining reaction time variance.
• Imageability did not account for additional variance once contextual density and estimated affect were included in the model.
• Brain imaging revealed largely overlapping neural loci and functional connectivity for the processing of all three variables.

Conclusions:

• The behavioral effects attributed to imageability are likely explained by correlated objective measures like contextual density and estimated affect.
• Neural processing for imageability, contextual density, and estimated affect is substantially shared, challenging imageability's independent role.