The role of affective meaning, semantic associates, and orthographic neighbours in modulating the N400 in single words
Blomberg, Frida LU ; Roll, Mikael LU ; Frid, Johan LU
; Lindgren, Magnus
LU
and Horne, Merle
LU
(2020)
In The Mental Lexicon
15(2).
p.161-188
- Abstract
The N400 has been seen to be larger for concrete thanabstract words, and for pseudowords than real words. Using a word vectoranalysis to calculate semantic associates (SA), as well as ratings foremotional arousal (EA), and a measure of orthographic neighbourhood (ON), thepresent study investigated the relation between these factors and N400 amplitudes during a lexical decision task usingSwedish word stimuli. Four noun categories differing in concreteness: specific(squirrel), general (animal) emotional (happiness) and abstract (tendency) werecompared with pseudowords (danalod). Results showed that N400 amplitudes increased in the order emotional < abstract < general < specific... (More)
The N400 has been seen to be larger for concrete thanabstract words, and for pseudowords than real words. Using a word vectoranalysis to calculate semantic associates (SA), as well as ratings foremotional arousal (EA), and a measure of orthographic neighbourhood (ON), thepresent study investigated the relation between these factors and N400 amplitudes during a lexical decision task usingSwedish word stimuli. Four noun categories differing in concreteness: specific(squirrel), general (animal) emotional (happiness) and abstract (tendency) werecompared with pseudowords (danalod). Results showed that N400 amplitudes increased in the order emotional < abstract < general < specific < pseudoword. A regression analysis showed that the amplitude ofthe N400 decreased the more semanticassociates a word had and the higher the rating for emotional arousal it had.The N400 also increased the moreorthographic neighbours a word had. Results provide support for thehierarchical organisation of concrete words assumed in lexical semantics. They also demonstrate how affectiveinformation facilitates meaning processing.
(Less)
- author
- Blomberg, Frida
LU
; Roll, Mikael
LU
; Frid, Johan
LU
; Lindgren, Magnus
LU
and Horne, Merle
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2020-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- concreteness; emotional arousal; semantic specificity; semantic associates; orthographic neighbours: ERP; N400; lexical decision, word vector
- in
- The Mental Lexicon
- volume
- 15
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 27 pages
- publisher
- John Benjamins Publishing Company
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85096055908
- ISSN
- 1871-1340
- DOI
- 10.1075/ml.19021.blo
- project
- Språkbanken & Swe-Clarin
- Abstract, concrete and emotional words in the mental lexicon
- Abstract, emotional and concrete words in the mental lexicon
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- dfb6988c-bd9f-4102-9b4d-11d3484336ff
- date added to LUP
- 2017-09-23 22:47:41
- date last changed
- 2023-12-01 17:16:19
@article{dfb6988c-bd9f-4102-9b4d-11d3484336ff,
abstract = {{<p class="MsoNormal">The N400 has been seen to be larger for concrete thanabstract words, and for pseudowords than real words. Using a word vectoranalysis to calculate semantic associates (SA), as well as ratings foremotional arousal (EA), and a measure of orthographic neighbourhood (ON), thepresent study investigated the relation between these factors and N400 amplitudes during a lexical decision task usingSwedish word stimuli. Four noun categories differing in concreteness: specific(<i>squirrel</i>), general (<i>animal</i>) emotional (<i>happiness</i>) and abstract (<i>tendency</i>) werecompared with pseudowords (<i>danalod</i>). Results showed that N400 amplitudes increased in the order emotional < abstract < general < specific < pseudoword. A regression analysis showed that the amplitude ofthe N400 decreased the more semanticassociates a word had and the higher the rating for emotional arousal it had.The N400 also increased the moreorthographic neighbours a word had. Results provide support for thehierarchical organisation of concrete words assumed in lexical semantics. They also demonstrate how affectiveinformation facilitates meaning processing.</p>}},
author = {{Blomberg, Frida and Roll, Mikael and Frid, Johan and Lindgren, Magnus and Horne, Merle}},
issn = {{1871-1340}},
keywords = {{concreteness; emotional arousal; semantic specificity; semantic associates; orthographic neighbours: ERP; N400; lexical decision, word vector}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{161--188}},
publisher = {{John Benjamins Publishing Company}},
series = {{The Mental Lexicon}},
title = {{The role of affective meaning, semantic associates, and orthographic neighbours in modulating the N400 in single words}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ml.19021.blo}},
doi = {{10.1075/ml.19021.blo}},
volume = {{15}},
year = {{2020}},
}