Modality-specific interaction between phonology and semantics Gail Moroschan

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Modality-specific interaction between phonology
and semanticsGail Moroschan Chris
WestburyDepartment of Psychology, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
L

• Introduction Previous psycholinguistic studies
  have suggested that semantics feeds back to
  phonology during lexical access. The results of
  an fMRI study done by Binder, Westbury, Possing,
  and McKiernan (2003) suggest that word
  imageability could also play a role as abstract
  words and concrete words activate different areas
  involved in phonological and semantic processing
  (Figure 1). The two experiments presented here
  are a continuation of a group of experiments
  conducted by Westbury and Binder (2003) to show
  behavioral evidence of this interaction effect.
• Method In the following two experiments,
  subjects had to make a semantic decision based on
  imageability. Both experiments looked at reaction
  times (RT) and used the manipulation of
  phonological neighborhood (PN) as well as
  imageability (concrete vs. abstract). The stimuli
  was presented using two modalities auditory
  presentation, and visual presentation using
  pseudohomophones. Pseudohomophones are non-words
  that sound like real words when pronounced. The
  use of pseudohomophones in the visual experiment
  was necessary to rule out orthographic effects.
  Subjects were asked to decide if the stimuli
  presented to them sounded like a concrete word
  (that is, something you can see, touch, hold in
  your hand, etc) and respond yes or no. We
  excluded RTs below 300 ms or above 3500 ms, and
  only used RTs for correct decisions.
• Auditory Concreteness Decision Experiment
• (Figure 2)
• 30 subjects (6 male, 24 female) listened to 82
  words presented auditorily through headphones.
• Results A main effect of imageability was found
  (plt0.01), but no effects of PN (p0.1). However,
  a significant interaction effect was seen between
  PN and imageability (plt0.01) when auditory
  presentation was used.

Visual Pseudohomophone Concreteness Decision
Experiment (Figure 3) 30 subjects (9 male, 21
female) saw a visual presentation of 100
pseudohomophones on an iMac monitor. Results
Again, a main effect of imageability was found
(plt0.01). However, no effects of PN or
interaction effects between PN and imageability
were found when visual presentation was
used. Discussion and Conclusion We were
successful in showing an interaction effect
between phonology and imageability for words
presented auditorily but not for those presented
visually. This interaction effect does provide
further support that semantics feeds back to
phonology during lexical access, especially when
phonology is emphasized over orthography by using
auditory presentation. References
Binder,J.R., Westbury, C.F., Possing, E.T.,
McKiernan, K.A.(2003). Neural correlates of
concrete and abstract word recognition. Poster
presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society
for Cognitive Neuroscience, New York, NY.
Westbury, C.F., Binder, J.R.(November, 2003).
Abstracting meaning from sound Interactions
between concreteness and phonology. Poster
presentation at Psychonomics Society Annual
Meeting, Vancouver, BC.
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• Figure 1 Abstract and Concrete word activation.
  Abstract words (blue) activated areas in the
  frontal and temporal lobes associated with
  phonological processing. Concrete words (orange)
  showed activations in sensory association areas.

Figure 2 A significant interaction effect was
found when using the auditory modality.
Figure 3 No significant interaction effects were
found when using the visual modality.