Brain potentials reflect semantic processing of crowded words J Zhou, C-L Lee, S-L Yeh |
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Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
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| Visual recognition of a peripheral target is impaired when surrounded by flankers than when presented alone. This visual crowding effect, however, survives semantic processing since unrecognizable crowded words still lead to semantic priming on the subsequently presented targets [Yeh et al, 2012, Psychological Science, 23(6), 608–616]. This surprising effect raises questions how semantic meaning is obtained from crowded words. In order to get insight into the temporal dynamics of word processing in visual crowding, we examine the brain potentials during a lexical decision task for crowded words. A peripheral target was presented either alone or crowded by four flankers, and the participants were instructed to judge whether the target was a word or not. Results in the isolated condition showed a lexicality effect, with words eliciting more positive responses than nonwords in a time window ranging from ~200 ms after the target onset through N400. Crowded words showed a different effect, eliciting a relatively late positive wave peaking at ~550 ms. These results reflect important temporal features in processing isolated and crowded words, suggesting a critical role of a late component in distinguishing words from nonwords in a crowded condition. |
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