1,721,026 research outputs found
Gli effetti del priming semantico e di ripetizione sopravvivono all’Attentional Blink?
No full textI partecipanti dovevano identificare tre parole bersaglio (T1, T2 e T3) all’interno di una sequenza seriale rapida di distrattori costituiti da stringhe casuali di lettere. Mentre T1 non aveva nessuna relazione con T2 e T3, T2 e T3 potevano essere semanticamente associati, identici o non avere nessuna relazione. I risultati hanno mostrano che anche quando T2 non veniva riferito, perché soggetto al fenomeno di Attentional Blink provocato da T1, la sua elaborazione produceva un effetto sul riconoscimento di T3. Si è ottenuto infatti, un effetto di priming su T3 sia quando T3 era identico a T2 sia quando T3 era semanticamente associato a T2. Subjects had to identify three target words (T1, T2, and T3) embedded in rapid serial visual presentation streams of letters distractors. Whereas T1 was always unrelated to both T2 and T3, T2 and T3 could be unrelated, semantically related, or identical words. Though missed on most trials by virtue of a T1-triggered attentional blink, T2 identity had an evident modulatory effect on T3 report accuracy. Priming on T3 was detected under conditions in which T3 was semantically related to T2, and under conditions in which T3 was identical to T2
The influence of gender stereotypical primes on the neural processing of words and faces
Full text linkImplicit and automatic gender stereotyping and its neural correlates have been extensively investigated in language. This study aimed to extend this investigation to human face processing. We recorded response times (RTs) and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to a target third-person singular pronoun (lui ‘he’ or lei ‘she’) or face (male, female), preceded by grammatically marked or stereotypically associated words (e.g. laureata ‘graduated’, badante ‘caregiver’). Participants gender-categorized the target pronoun or face. The RTs showed a priming effect for the grammatical condition for pronouns and both grammatical and stereotypical conditions for faces. At the ERP level, feminine pronouns elicited a larger P300 and LPP (limited to men) when preceded by grammatically masculine than feminine primes. Faces elicited a larger N400, P300, and LPP (limited to women for female faces) when preceded by grammatically gender-incongruent than -congruent primes. Critically, faces showed an ERP gender stereotype asymmetry: larger N400 to male faces, and larger P300 to female faces, when preceded by stereotypically gender-incongruent than -congruent primes. This study shows that faces are influenced by gender stereotypes similarly and more strongly than linguistic stimuli. Given the multidimensionality of faces, this study is a gate-opener for future studies on the interplay between different stereotypes
INOVICTS-03 . Innovative Methods for the Assessment and Training of Interpersonal Transferable Skills: Development and Testing. Report on Gender Differences
Full text linkUltra-rapid and involuntary semantic processing of stimuli in rsvp streams.
No full textAn Attentional Blink paradigm was used to directly compare and contrast semantic and repetition priming to reported versus missed words. Three target words (T1, T2, T3) were embedded among rapidly black non-word distractors for report at the end of each trial. T1 was never related to T2 and T3, while, T2 and T3 were unrelated, semantically related, or identical. Whether or not T2 was reported, I observed both semantic and repetition priming of T3 in both report accuracy and certain ERP measures. The results suggest that semantic and repetition priming appear to engage at least partially overlapping mechanisms
Electrophysiological evidence for the activation of gender stereotypes during language processing
No full textElectrophysiological evidence for the activation of gender stereotypes during language processin
The influence of the noun suffix in the processing of grammatical gender in Italian
No full textThe aim of the current study is to further investigate the role of the noun suffix in the processing of grammatical gender. We used nouns in which the final vowel is consistent with the typical gender-to-ending distribution in Italian (transparent nouns ending in -aFEM and in –oMASC; e.g. bibitaFEM, “drink” ); nouns in which the final vowel is not informative of the gender (opaque nouns, ending in –e; e.g. verniceFEM, “paint”); and nouns whose grammatical gender does not conform to the gender that would be expected from the suffix (irregular nouns; e.g. manoFEM, “hand”). Previous research suggests that when the orthographical-phonological information conveyed by the noun suffix is inconsistent with gender, lexical processing is slower and less accurate (Bates, Devescovi, Pizzamiglio, D’Amico & Hernandez, 1995). However, the morphological status of the noun suffix and the time course with which the suffix is used in processing semantic gender and arbitrary grammatical gender are still unclear. To test the influence of the noun suffix on the gender processing, we used a paradigm highly similar to that employed by Dell’Acqua, Pesciarelli, Jolicouer, Eimer & Peressotti (2007). In our behavioural study we contrasted the role of the noun suffix in Italian nouns characterized either by a semantic gender (e.g., mammaFEM, “mother”) or by an arbitrary gender (e.g., lampadaFEM, “lamp”), with transparent, opaque or irregular endings. The noun was followed by two lateralized stimuli (an adjective and a distractor) presented one to the left and one to the right of a central fixation cross. Each noun was paired with a gender agreeing or disagreeing adjective (e.g bibitaFEM gasataFEM /gasatoMASC, “drink fizzy”) and participants were asked to judge whether they agree or not. Our results showed that: 1. the gender-to-ending consistency of the suffix affected the computation of grammatical agreement; 2. the effect was stronger for biological than for arbitrary gender nouns. Our data confirm the direction of the effect of orthographical-phonological transparency, further showing the influence of biological gender
ERP evidence for the activation of gender stereotypes: The case of Italian.
No full textLanguage users have mental representations of words (e.g., occupation nouns and personal characteristics) that include information about the word’s stereotypical gender. This information is difficult to suppress during on-line language processing (e.g., Banaji & Hardin, 1996; Cacciari & Padovani, 2007; Oakhill, Garnham, & Reynolds, 2005). The few electrophysiological studies conducted on this topic showed that different neural processes are engaged in the processing of gender-stereotype information (Irmen, Holt, & Weisbrod, 2010: N400, P600; Osterhout, Bersick, & McLaughlin, 1997: P600; White, et al., 2009: N400).
In this ERP study we investigated the activation of gender stereotypes in Italian using a priming paradigm adapted from Banaji and Hardin (1996). Our aim was, first, to establish how early this information becomes available to the reader, and, second, to uncover the ERP signature of the emergence of gender stereotypes in language. Participants were presented with a prime that could be: a masculine or feminine stereotypical gender noun (conducenteMASC “driver” vs. insegnanteFEM “teacher”); a masculine or feminine grammatically marked noun (pensionatoMASC “pensioner” vs. passeggeraFEM “passenger”). Each prime was followed by either a masculine or a feminine personal pronoun (Lui “he” vs. Lei “she”). Participants decided whether the pronoun was masculine or feminine, while their RTs and ERPs were recorded. Primes and targets were controlled for psycholinguistic variables (length, frequency); in addition, masculine and feminine stereotypes were matched in stereotype strength and valence.
As in previous behavioural studies, participants were faster to judge the gender of the pronoun when preceded by a gender-congruent than gender-incongruent prime in both biological and stereotypical conditions. The ERP results suggest two different effects. First, when the pronouns were preceded by biological grammatically marked incongruent nouns (e.g., pensionato-lei; passeggera-lui), a larger negativity between 200 and 380 ms peaking around 300 ms (most prominent across frontal/central sites) emerged. Interestingly, when the pronouns were preceded by stereotypical primes, a negativity with similar latency and distribution emerged in the incongruent condition only for masculine pronouns. Second, an increased positivity between 380 and 500 ms peaking around 420 ms (most prominent across frontal/central sites) was observed when pronouns followed biological, but not stereotypical, gender-incongruent primes.
The waveforms we obtained for biological gender violations are comparable to the N400 reported by Barber and Carreiras (2003). Our seemingly early and more frontal effect could be due to the use of function words (pronouns) rather than content ones as in Barber and Carreiras (2003). The positivity around 420 ms for biological gender violations appears to be in line with the P300 effect observed in Barber and Carreiras (2003) together with the N400. Crucially, our ERP results provide further support for online effects of stereotypical gender in language comprehension. When a role noun is read, the stereotypical gender associated with it, if any, is activated together with other lexical-semantic information and might prime gender-congruent nodes. Remarkably, the ERP confirmed a gender stereotype asymmetry (cfr. Cacciari & Padovani, 2007), in that male and female gender stereotypes affected the processing of pronouns differently.
The results imply that participants seemed more accepting of female drivers than male teachers, suggesting that gender stereotypes (conveyed by occupation nouns or personal characteristics) might be less restrictive for females than males. According to social psychologists, one social group (e.g., males) can become more normative than another (e.g., females) (Hegarty & Pratto, 2001). Indeed, attitudes and stereotypes have been found to be influenced more by male exemplars than by female ones (Eagly & Kite, 1987).
We can thus hypothesize that female gender stereotypes (e.g., insegnante “teacher”) recruited only female category members, while male gender stereotypes (e.g., conducente “driver”) recruited both male and female category members. This is because in our society, the male social group is more normative than the female one, being the “unmarked normative group” (Hegarty & Pratto, 2001). As a result, masculine pronouns that followed female stereotypes mismatched category norms, eliciting longer reading times and a more pronounced negativity, while feminine pronouns that followed male stereotypes did not
The interaction between language and visual spatial attention systems in grammatical gender processing. An N2pc study
No full textThis ERP study employed an N2pc paradigm to investigate possible functional interactions between mechanisms of visual spatial attention and grammatical gender processing. Previous studies showed that the N2pc, an attention-related ERP component, can be modulated by lexical-semantic variables. However, it remains to be seen whether the N2pc can be affected by grammatical features as well. To test this, we conducted an N2pc study with Italian word pairs whose grammatical gender either agreed or disagreed. Participants read a centrally presented noun followed by an adjective in a lateralized position during a gender agreement task. Between 170 and 310ms, the N2pc was elicited contralaterally to the adjective position with a left-lateralized effect of the agreement manipulation. These results suggest that this component could be influenced by grammatical features, supporting a functional interaction between processes mediating visual spatial attention and agreement computation
Is the hat on the table? Language and Spatial Relations in and out of Context
No full textLanguage and space are closely inter-related as they reflect, and are constrained by, fundamen- tal properties of the human conceptual system , and also because of the mapping of conceptual structure and spatial representation into language (Jacken- doff, 1996). In addition, they can be instrumental in sheding light on each other, as several study in memory and description of places have shown (e.g. Linde & Labov, 1975; Ullmer-Ehrich, 1982; Mainardi Peron, Baroni, Job, & Salmaso, 1990). Numerous analysis and empirical studies have shown that in the comprehension of spatial prepo- sitions factors related to the functions and contex- tually-defined roles of the elements, as well as to the linguistic meaning (Bennett, 1975), affect par- ticipants’ performance (e.g. Garrod and Sanford, 1989; Coventry, Carmichael, & Garrod, 1994; Cars- lon-Radvansky and Radvansky, 1996). In the present study, we investigated the com- prehension of spatial preposition using a sentence/ picture verification task with the aim of elucidating the role of real-world knowledge in the processing of sentences. On the assumption that the compre- hension of expressions indicating spatial relations among elements relies crucially on contextual infor- mation we manipulated the type of pictorial informa- tion participants were presented with factors. On half of the trials, we provided an environment that could act as a frame for the interpretation of the spatial relation referred to by the verbal expression. On the remaining trial, the geometrical information remai- ned the same but no environmental information was provided. The predictions were the following: If environ- mental information is processed as fast as, or fas- ter than, geometrical information, a facilitation effect may be detected for the conditions in which a frame is provided. However, when environmental informa- tion and geometrical information mismatch, then providing a frame should hinder processing
Le associazioni verbali PD-DPSS: norme per 294 parole.
No full textIl lavoro presenta norme di associazione verbale per 294 parole della lingua italiana
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