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Structure and Process in Semantic Memory: Evidence From Event-Related Brain Potentials and Reaction Times
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Structure and Process in Semantic Memory: Evidence From Event-Related Brain Potentials and Reaction Times

John Kounios and Phillip J Holcomb
Journal of experimental psychology. General, v 121(4), pp 459-479
Dec 1992
PMID: 1431739

Abstract

Through scalp measurements of the electrical activity of the brain (event-related potentials, or ERPs) recorded while subjects verified the truth of sentences relating exemplars and categories (e.g., ALL DOGS ARE ANIMALS ), inferences were made about aspects of semantic processing that were not directly reflected by overt responses. In particular, it is suggested that a negative ERP component that peaks about 400 ms after the onset of the sentence predicate (i.e., N400) is sensitive to structural aspects of semantic memory. The amplitude of this component was modulated by the relatedness of the subject and predicate terms, as well as the hierarchical level of both these terms, but was not sensitive to the truth value of a sentence.

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Web of Science research areas
Psychology, Experimental
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