S1 (FriAM 1-65) - The Psychonomic Society

Saturday Noon Posters 4008–4013
Normal University, & PING LI, University of Richmond—Zevin and
Seidenberg (2002) suggested that there may be a lasting advantage for
early learned words in Chinese because of the more arbitrary nature
of the script. We investigated age of acquisition (AoA) effects with behavioral,
electrophysiological, and brain imaging methods on Chinese
single-character lexical decision. Experiment 1 used a factorial manipulation
and found AoA effects when other variables were controlled.
Experiment 2 confirmed these results using multiple regression
methods. In Experiment 3, EEG data confirmed wave amplitude
differences between early and late acquired items. In Experiment 4,
event-related fMRI revealed that early and late acquired items activated
different brain regions including frontal and precuneus cortices.
We argue that AoA effects exist in the recognition of characters in
Chinese, which is compatible with the arbitrary mapping hypothesis.
(4008)
Late Semantic Age of Acquisition Effects in Reading: Evidence
From Eye Movements. BARBARA J. JUHASZ, Wesleyan University,
& MARGARET GULLICK, Dartmouth College—Words that are acquired
early in life are recognized faster than words acquired later in
life. Previous studies have observed age of acquisition (AoA) effects
on fixation durations during reading (Juhasz & Rayner, 2003, 2006).
The present study explored the locus of this AoA effect. Balanced ambiguous
words (tick) were selected for which both meanings of the
word (clock sound, insect) were equally frequent, but one meaning
was rated as being acquired earlier. These ambiguous words were embedded
in sentence contexts that disambiguated the meaning of the
ambiguous word; readers’ eye movements were then recorded. Meaning
AoA affected late processing measures on the ambiguous word,
including second-pass reading time. The effect of meaning AoA also
spilled over onto the posttarget region. A comparison of these late semantic
AoA effects with previous studies suggests that AoA affects
multiple stages in the lexical processing system. Implications for
models of word recognition will be discussed.
(4009)
Hemispheric Differences in Processing Early and Late AoA Words
for Left- and Right-Handed Adults. J. MICHAEL BOWERS &
SHELIA M. KENNISON, Oklahoma State University (sponsored by
Shelia M. Kennison)—The research extended prior studies showing
that there are hemispheric differences in the processing of words
learned early in childhood (early AoA) versus words learned later in
life (late AoA) (Bowers & Kennison, 2007). These prior studies
showed that there is greater right hemisphere involvement in the processing
of early AoA words than of late AoA words. The present research
compared the hemispheric differences in the processing of early
and late AoA words for right-handed and left-handed adults. Three
groups of participants were compared: (1) left-handed adults; (2) righthanded
adults with only right-handed biological relatives; and
(3) right-handed adults with some left-handed biological relatives. Participants
viewed early and late AoA words presented briefly to either
the left or the right visual field and carried out a lexical decision task.
The results showed that there were significant hemispheric differences
in the processing of late AoA words by left- and right-handed adults.
(4010)
There Are Many Ways to Be Rich: Effects of Three Measures of
Semantic Richness on Visual Word Recognition. PENNY M. PEX-
MAN & IAN S. HARGREAVES, University of Calgary, PAUL D.
SIAKALUK, University of Northern British Columbia, & GLEN E.
BODNER & JAMIE POPE, University of Calgary—Previous studies
have reported facilitatory effects of semantic richness on word recognition
(e.g., Buchanan et al., 2001; Pexman et al., 2003). We compared
the ability of three richness measures to account for reaction time (RT)
and error variance in lexical decision and semantic categorization
tasks. The measures were: (1) number of semantic neighbors (NSN;
the number of words appearing in similar linguistic contexts),
(2) number of features (NoF; the number of attributes listed for a
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word’s referent), and (3) contextual dispersion (CD; the distribution
of a word’s occurrences across contexts). NoF and CD accounted for
unique variance in both tasks, whereas NSN accounted for unique
variance only in the lexical decision task. Moreover, each measure
showed a different pattern of relative contribution across the tasks.
Our results provide new clues about how words are represented, and
favor word recognition models that incorporate both lexical–semantic
and episodic influences.
(4011)
Multiple Semantic Associates for a Single Individual With Free
Association. LANCE W. HAHN, Western Kentucky University—
Traditionally, free association tasks have acquired a single response
for each cue word across several participants, and the results have been
treated as a set of weighted associations for an idealized participant.
One disadvantage of this approach is that it obscures individual differences.
Monte Carlo simulations suggest a second disadvantage:
Collecting single responses may undersample secondary associations.
The presence of a strong associate can diminish the likelihood of a
second moderate associate being produced in a single-response free
association task. Single-response and multiple-response free association
tasks were used to create a set of associations. The results suggest
that the multiple-response task produces larger association strengths
than does the single-response task for secondary associations. Additionally,
the multiple-response task can be used to measure individual
and group differences in semantic associations.
(4012)
Does Prior Knowledge Affect Distraction? The Effects of Aging
and Music Expertise. ELIZABETH R. GRAHAM & GABRIELLE
OSBORNE, Claremont Graduate University, & DEBORAH M.
BURKE, Pomona College—Visual distractors semantically related to
a text slow reading time more for older than young adults. We investigated
whether these effects reflect generic age-related inhibition
deficits or older adults’ enriched semantic network. Young and older
adults with low or high knowledge about music read passages about
music or a control topic; passages contained related, unrelated, or no
distractors. Older adults’ reading times were slowed more by distractors
than were young adults’. Reading times for music passages with
related distractors were slower for related than for unrelated distractors
for older adults but only for high-knowledge young adults.
Recognition memory was better for targets than for distractors, with
a larger effect for young than for older adults for the control passage.
For music passages, however, superior recognition of targets occurred
for low- but not for high-knowledge participants across age. Thus,
prior knowledge modifies age differences in distraction, suggesting
the importance of richer semantic networks for performance.
(4013)
Behavioral and Anatomical Correlates of Corpus Callosum Size.
CHRISTINE CHIARELLO & SUZANNE E. WELCOME, University
of California, Riverside, LAURA K. HALDERMAN, University of
Pittsburgh, STEPHEN TOWLER, University of Florida, Gainesville,
RONALD OTTO, Riverside Imaging LLC, & CHRISTIANA M.
LEONARD, University of Florida, Gainesville—The corpus callosum
varies widely in size and shape across individuals. We investigated
anatomical and behavioral correlates of this variation in 200 young
adults. Size of the total corpus callosum and seven subregions was
measured from structural MRI scans, and the participants were tested
in seven divided visual field lexical tasks. Contrary to prior findings
with smaller samples, there was no relationship between corpus callosum
size and either behavioral or anatomical asymmetries. There
were no overall sex differences in corpus callosum anatomy. However,
we did obtain a sex � handedness interaction in a subsample of
matched left- and right-handers: The splenium and isthmus were
larger in left-handers than in right-handers, only for males. Variations
in corpus callosum anatomy may not be associated with simple measures
of structural or behavioral asymmetries.