Procedural Memory Deficits in Preschool Children with Developmental Language Disorder in a Spanish-Speaking Population.

This study aimed to compare procedural learning skills between Spanish-speaking preschool children (ages 4 years to 4 years, 11 months) with developmental language disorder (DLD) and their chronologically matched typically developing (TD) peers. Using the serial reaction time (SRT) task, participants (30 children with DLD and 30 TD children) responded to visual stimuli in a sequenced manner over four blocks, followed by a random order block. The task assessed reaction time (RT) and accuracy. The results showed a significant interaction between group and block for RT and accuracy, with children with DLD exhibiting longer RTs and accuracy deficits across blocks. In contrast, the TD group showed higher RT efficiency and accuracy in the sequential blocks and, as expected, decreased performance in the random block according to the experimental manipulation. Overall, the results of this investigation suggest that there was no implicit learning in the DLD group, as indicated by the SRT task paradigms of procedural memory. These findings align with some aspects of the procedural deficit hypothesis (PDH), which suggests that linguistic deficits in the DLD population may derive from a deficit in sequential learning from the procedural memory system domain in the Spanish context.

You are fired! Exclusion words induce corticospinal modulations associated with vicarious pain.

Self- and vicarious experience of physical pain induces inhibition of the motor cortex (M1). Experience of social rejections recruits the same neural network as physical pain; however, whether social pain modulates M1 corticospinal excitability remains unclear. This study examines for the first time whether social exclusion words, rather than simulated social exclusion tasks, modulate embodied sensorimotor networks during the vicarious experience of others' pain. Participants observed visual sequences of painful and functional events ending with a superimposed word with social exclusion, social inclusion or non-social meaning. Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) to single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation of the left M1 were recorded at 400 or 550 ms from word onset. MEPs tended to inhibit during the observation of pain, relative to functional events. Moreover, MEPs recorded at 400 ms from word onset, during pain movies, decreased following the presentation of exclusion, relative to inclusion/neutral words. The magnitude of these two modulations marginally correlated with participants' interindividual differences in personal distress and self-esteem. These findings provide evidence of vicarious responses to others' pain in the M1 corticospinal system and enhancement of such vicarious response in the earlier phases of semantic processing of exclusion words-supporting activation of social pain-embodied representations.

Social approach and avoidance in language: N400-like ERP negativity indexes congruency and theta rhythms the conflict.

Motivational congruency has been examined using tasks where participants perform approach or avoidance movements towards socially positive or negative faces. Language is tightly intertwined with interpersonal cognition. Thus, similar situations could be represented by means of language in interpersonal contexts: adjectives furnish valence to people (e.g. someone is cordial or arrogant), and attitudinal verbs define direction to relationship-actions: approach-avoidance (e.g. accept vs. reject). In an Electroencephalography (EEG) study, 40 participants were presented with sentences where a character was valenced (e.g. "Arthur is cordial/arrogant") before being the target of a relationship-actions ("Grisela welcomed/ignored Arthur at the party"). We analyzed both Event-related potential (ERP) amplitude and time-frequency power in response to the attitudinal verb. For ERP amplitudes, we found a significant cluster between 280 and 370 ms, covering part of the development of a N400-like ERP component. This cluster reflects an interaction driven by congruency between motivational direction and target valence. Likewise, time-frequency power analysis revealed an enhancement of theta rhythms under incongruent conditions, most likely indexing conflict processing. Results support that relationship-actions are represented as approach and avoidance and thus involve conflict processing and resolution of incongruent situations. Implications for the interweaving of affective language and social cognition within Embodiment Simulation Theory are discussed.

Comprensión del tiempo a través del espacio: Un estudio de plasticidad inducida en niños con trastorno del desarrollo del lenguaje / Time comprehension through space: A research study on induced plasticity in children with developmental language disorder

Objetivo: Evaluar si los niños con trastorno del desarrollo lingüístico de tipo mixto (TDL) comprenden el tiempo verbal por medio de la metáfora conceptual «tiempo es espacio» (futuro adelante, pasado atrás). Método: Se elaboró un experimento de plasticidad inducida que consistió en mover fichas de un recipiente a otro realizando un movimiento adelante o atrás, y luego realizar un juicio de coherencia semántica en oraciones en pasado y futuro. Resultados: El desempeño general de los niños con TDL fue inferior en comparación con los niños con desarrollo típico (DT), con menos aciertos en las oraciones en pasado que en futuro. La interacción entre los dominios conceptuales de la metáfora (dirección del movimiento y tiempo verbal) al medir el tiempo de respuesta evidenció un efecto de interferencia compatible con la metáfora en niños con TDL y con DT. Al medir el porcentaje de aciertos, los resultados arrojaron una interacción entre dirección, tiempo y grupo, que muestra un efecto de facilitación compatible con la metáfora en los niños con TDL y un efecto de interferencia en niños con DT. Todos los resultados dependieron de la covariable atención sostenida. Conclusiones: Esta investigación da cuenta de la relación que existe entre el dominio espacial del eje adelante-atrás y la comprensión del tiempo verbal en niños con TDL y niños con normodesarrollo lingüístico. Los resultados se explican por medio de la teoría de la metáfora conceptual y las teorías corpóreas, y son de relevancia para futuras investigaciones y nuevas propuestas de intervención en el TDL.(AU)

Objective: To assess whether children with mixed developmental language disorders (DLD) understand verb tense through the conceptual metaphor «time is space» (future ahead, past behind). Method: An induced plasticity experiment was used which comprised moving tokens from one container to another using a forward or backward movement, and then forming a judgement of semantic coherence in past and future sentences. Results: The overall performance of the children with DLD was lower compared to typically developing (TD) children, attaining fewer hits in past sentences than future sentences. The interaction between the conceptual domains of the metaphor (movement direction and verb tense) when measuring response time, showed an interference effect compatible with the metaphor in the DLD and the TD children. When measuring the hit rate, the results showed an interaction between direction, tense, and group, showing a facilitation effect compatible with the metaphor in the children with DLD and an interference effect in the TD children. All the results depended on sustained attention. Conclusions: This research study shows the relationship between the spatial dominance of the forward/backward axis and understanding of verb tense in children with DLD and children with normal language development. The results are explained through the theory of conceptual metaphor and corporeal theories and are relevant for future research and new proposals for intervention in DLD.(AU)

Enhancing Memory for Relationship Actions by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Superior Temporal Sulcus.

We examine the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of right superior temporal sulcus (rSTS) in memorization of approach/avoidance relationship-action sentences; for example, "Alejandro accepted/rejected Marta in his group." Sixty-five university students participated in a tDCS study, in which a between-subjects design was adopted. Sixty-four participants were also given the behavioral approach system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) scales. Participants were subjected to 20 min of stimulation: anodal (N = 24), cathodal (N = 21), or sham (N = 20); subsequently, they were given a list of 40 sentences (half approach and half avoidance) and told to try to memorize them. Finally, they performed a changed/same memory task (half the sentences were the "same" and half were "changed"). Previously, we had examined performance in the memory task without tDCS with another group of participants (N = 20). We found that anodal stimulation improved d' index of discriminability (hits-false alarms) compared to sham and cathodal conditions for both approach and avoidance sentences. Moreover, the comparison between anodal and task-alone performance showed that stimulation improved d' index of approach sentences more, as task-alone performance showed better discrimination for avoidance than for approach. Likewise, we explored a potential modulation of tDCS effect by (BAS) and (BIS) traits. We found that d' index improvement in anodal stimulation condition only benefited low BAS and low BIS participants. Implications of these results are discussed in the context of rSTS function in encoding and memorizing verbally described intentional relationship-actions and the role of individual differences on modulating tDCS effect.

Negation interacts with motivational direction in understanding action sentences.

Linguistic negation acts by inhibiting the representation of information under its scope, often leading to the representation of positive alternative states of affairs. Motivational direction refers to approach/avoidance intentionality in our interactions with environmental stimuli expressed by means of verbs (e.g., "accept" vs "reject"). We consider it plausible that negation interacts with direction to represent the true motivation of the protagonist in sentence understanding (e.g., if an approach action is negated it is represented as avoidance). In the first study, we examine this interaction offline by asking participants to judge approach or avoidance meaning of affirmative (e.g., "he/she included/excluded meat") and negative sentences ("he/she did not include/exclude meat"). Results support that negation reversed participants' interpretation of sentence motivational direction. In a further study, we carried out two probe recognition experiments to examine the interaction during sentence comprehension; in both, the critical probe was the word referring to the target of the action (e.g., "meat"). In the first experiment, participants had to recognize the probe word presented 1500 milliseconds after sentence offset, while for the second one, the delay was 500 milliseconds. Results showed that at 1500 ms, target recognition took significantly more time for negated avoidance sentences than for the other conditions. Therefore, representing negated avoidance sentences seems to imply more complex processing, as avoidance verbs would be implicitly negative. By contrast, at the 500 ms delay, negation impaired target recognition for both approach and avoidance sentences, suggesting an unspecific inhibitory effect of negation at that sentence processing stage. Implication of these results for both research on negation and in action understanding are discussed.

[A quasi-experimental study on the decisions, behavioral regulation, and metacognition of Ecuadorian men]. / Estudio cuasiexperimental de la toma de decisiones, regulación del comportamiento y metacognición en hombres ecuatorianos.

INTRODUCTION: Decision-making is one of the most critical components of people's lives. It involves cognitive factors, which are responsible for processing the stimuli present in the task, remembering past experiences, and assessing the possible consequences that emotional decisions can have. So far, there are no studies of this nature in Ecuador, so this research seeks to establish the characteristics of the Ecuadorian population. With the results obtained, we expect to gain insight into the way this population handles decisions in daily life. OBJECTIVE: To relate decision-making to behavioral regulation and metacognition in a sample of Ecuadorian men. METHODS: We used a quasi-experimental design. We recruited 33 male subjects from the general population. We evaluated decision-making through the experimental Iowa Gambling Task. Behavior regulation and metacognition were assessed with the Executive Func-tion Behavior Classification (adult version). RESULTS: The main result was that, in the index of behavior regulation, decision-making is related to change and emotional control. In the metacognition index, it is related to working memory, task organization, and planning and organization. We found that the partic-ipants tend to make risky decisions at the beginning of the task, but as it progresses, participants make less risky decisions. CONCLUSIONS: The implicit learning of the test operation allows the participants to assign emotional values to the results obtained when choos-ing a particular deck that takes into account past experiences, thus making it possible to anticipate consequences. The results are novel in that the relationship between an experimental behavior pattern linked to risky and non-risky decisions and its association with different executive functions is analyzed through the application of a questionnaire.

INTRODUCCIÓN: La toma de decisiones es uno de los componentes más importantes dentro de la vida de las personas. En ella intervienen factores cognitivos, los cuales se encargan de procesar los estímulos presentes en la tarea, recordar experiencias pasadas y valorar las posibles consecuencias que pueden tener las decisiones emocionales. Hasta ahora no se encuentran en Ecuador estudios de esta naturaleza que se hayan realizado en este contexto, por lo que esta investigación busca establecer características propias de la población ecuatoriana. Con los resultados obtenidos se pretende contar con una aproximación a la forma de tomar decisiones de esta población en su vida cotidiana. OBJETIVO: Relacionar la toma de decisiones con la regulación del comportamiento y la metacognición en una muestra de hombres ecuatorianos. MÉTODOS: Diseño cuasi experimental. Participaron 33 sujetos de sexo masculino de la población general. La toma de decisiones fue evaluada a través de la tarea experimental del Iowa Gambling Task y se estudió la regulación del comportamiento y la metacognición a través de la Clasificación de Comportamiento de la Función Ejecutiva (versión adulta). RESULTADOS: El principal resultado fue que en el índice de regulación del comportamiento la toma de decisiones se relaciona con cambio y control emocional; y en el índice metacognición, se relaciona con memoria de trabajo, organización de tareas, planificación y organización. Se evidencia que los participantes tienden a tomar decisiones riesgosas al inicio de la tarea; pero a medida que la tarea progresa, los participantes toman decisiones menos riesgosas. CONCLUSIONES: El aprendizaje implícito del funcionamiento de la prueba permite que los participantes asignen valores emocionales a los resultados obtenidos al escoger un determinado mazo, considerando las experiencias pasadas, lo que permite establecer una anticipación de las consecuencias. Los resultados son novedosos en cuanto se analiza la relación entre un patrón de conducta experimental vinculado a decisiones riesgosas y no riesgosas, y su asociación con diferentes funciones ejecutivas a través de la aplicación de un cuestionario.

Brain Encoding of Social Approach: Is it Associated With Spatial Ability?

Human brains encode approach in social relationships as cognitively relevant for adaptive behavior. In this study, using event-related potentials (ERPs), we found that reading approach-social actions are likely to cause activation around the right anterior/middle superior temporal sulcus (STS), a brain area particularly involved in processing action intentionality and social relationships. We consider that the human capacity for the mental rotation of figures could also be adaptive for social relationships at the service of planning interaction with other bodies in social encounters. Encoding of social approach and spatial ability would correlate if both capacities are aimed at achieving the adaptive goal of secure interactions with others. We found a strong correlation between brain activation in the right temporal brain region and spatial ability. Implications of these results for the psychological mechanisms involved in adaptive social behavior are discussed.

Understanding approach and avoidance in verbal descriptions of everyday actions: An ERP study.

Understanding verbal descriptions of everyday actions could involve the neural representation of action direction (avoidance and approach) toward persons and things. We recorded the electrophysiological activity of participants while they were reading approach/avoidance action sentences that were directed toward a target: a thing/a person (i.e., "Petra accepted/rejected Ramón in her group"/ "Petra accepted/rejected the receipt of the bank"). We measured brain potentials time locked to the target word. In the case of things, we found a N400-like component with right frontal distribution modulated by approach/avoidance action. This component was more negative in avoidance than in approach sentences. In the case of persons, a later negative event-related potential (545-750 ms) with left frontal distribution was sensitive to verb direction, showing more negative amplitude for approach than avoidance actions. In addition, more negativity in approach-person sentences was associated with fear avoidance trait, whereas less negativity in avoidance-person sentences was associated with a greater approach trait. Our results support that verbal descriptions of approach/avoidance actions are encoded differently depending on whether the target is a thing or a person. Implications of these results for a social, emotional and motivational understanding of action language are discussed.

¿Qué esperan encontrar los alumnos en los estudios de Psicología? Metas y motivos personales de los estudiantes en su primer año en la universidad / What do students expect to find when they enter Psychology studies? Goals and personal motives during the first year at university

Numerosas investigaciones se han interesado por el perfil motivacional de ingreso de los universitarios. Sin embargo, se ha prestado menos atención al estudio de las metas que los estudiantes pretenden satisfacer cuando llegan a la universidad. En este trabajo presentamos un primer estudio con 610 alumnos de Psicología, de cuatro cursos consecutivos. En él se analiza la estructura factorial de una escala que evalúa la identificación de los estudiantes con diferentes tipos de motivos. En un segundo estudio, con otros 140 estudiantes, se relacionan las metas interpersonales con otras metas vitales, la satisfacción de necesidades psicológicas, el bienestar subjetivo y la presencia de pensamientos perfeccionistas. Los datos muestran la importancia de las metas de logro, de poder, de afiliación y de superación de problemas personales. Estas últimas presentan, además, una relación negativa con el bienestar y la satisfacción de necesidades psicológicas, y una relación positiva con el perfeccionismo. Nuestros resultados aportan un mayor conocimiento de los perfiles de los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso y las consecuencias que de ellos se derivan para su orientación académica

This study investigated Psychology students' interpersonal and social goals during their first year at university. In Study 1 we analyze the reliability and ran a confirmatory factor analysis of a 45-item questionnaire about different kinds of interpersonal motives. The sample was integrated by 610 first year college students from four consecutive courses. In a second study with another 140 students, beside the scale about interpersonal goals they completed a set of scales about their aspirations, psychological basic needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness, subjective wellbeing and perfectionism cognitions. Data from both studies showed that: a) Importance is given mainly to achievement, power, affiliation and overcoming personal problems goals; b) The presence of overcoming personal problems goals hindered adjustment, indicated by positive associations with all the perfectionism dimensions, and by negative association with subjective wellbeing and frustration of psychological needs. Our results could provide new insight about the profiles of psychological students and the consequences resulting from them for their academic guidance

Carefully encoding approach/avoidance body locomotion with interpersonal conduct in narrated interactions.

Approach and avoidance tendencies towards valenced others could be associated with our interpersonal conduct towards them: helping would be associated with approach tendency, and harming (or denying help) would be associated with avoidance. We propose that the encoding of this association enjoys attentional priority, as approach/avoidance representations of past interactions would regulate one's predisposition to either help or harm in subsequent interactions. Participants listened to interactions conveying positive/negative conduct between 2 characters. The conduct verb was then presented visually with a cue prompting participants to quickly step forward or backward. Subsequently, they performed a recognition task of noncentral story details. In matching conditions (positive conduct-step forward, negative conduct-step backward) the concurrent step should interfere with the encoding of motor representation of the conduct verb, and the verb encoding should divert attentional resources from the consolidation of memory traces of less relevant information. Results showed the predicted impairment in the recognition task in matching conditions, which supports an attentional bias towards encoding motor approach/avoidance representation of interpersonal conduct in the process of comprehending narrated interactions.

Counterfactuals in action: an fMRI study of counterfactual sentences describing physical effort.

Counterfactual statements such as if Mary had cleaned the room, she would have moved the sofa convey both actual and hypothetical actions, namely, that Mary did not clean the room or move the sofa, but she would have done so in some possible past situation. Such statements are ubiquitous in daily life and are involved in critical cognitive activities like decision-making and evaluation of alternative outcomes. Here, we investigate the brain mechanisms and the nature of the semantic representations involved in understanding the complex meaning of counterfactual statements. We used fMRI to examine brain responses to counterfactual statements describing actions of high and low physical effort and compared them to similar factual statements describing the same actions. Results indicated that the inferior parietal lobule, known to support planning of object-directed actions, responded more strongly to high-effort than low-effort statements. Moreover, counterfactual statements, compared to factual ones, recruited a distinctive neural network partially overlapping with action execution networks. This network included medial pre-motor and pre-frontal structures, which underpin selection and inhibition of alternative action representations, and parahippocampal and temporal regions, involved in retrieving episodic memories. We argue that counterfactual comprehension recruit action-related networks encoding and managing alternative representations of behaviors.

Understanding counterfactuals in discourse modulates ERP and oscillatory γ rhythms in the EEG.

This study provides ERP and oscillatory dynamics data associated with the comprehension of narratives involving counterfactual events. Participants were given short stories describing an initial situation ("Marta wanted to plant flowers in her garden…."), followed by a critical sentence describing a new situation in either a factual ("Since she found a spade, she started to dig a hole") or counterfactual format ("If she had found a spade, she would have started to dig a hole"), and then a continuation sentence that was either related to the initial situation ("she bought a spade") or to the new one ("she planted roses"). The ERPs recorded for the continuation sentences related to the initial situation showed larger negativity after factuals than after counterfactuals, suggesting that the counterfactual's presupposition - the events did not occur - prevents updating the here-and-now of discourse. By contrast, continuation sentences related to the new situation elicited similar ERPs under both factual and counterfactual contexts, suggesting that counterfactuals also activate momentarily an alternative "as if" meaning. However, the reduction of gamma power following counterfactuals, suggests that the "as if" meaning is not integrated into the discourse, nor does it contribute to semantic unification processes.

Discourse updating after reading a counterfactual event

Este artículo explora el curso temporal de la actualización del discurso tras la lectura de eventos contrafactuales. Para comprobar la accesibilidad de la información discursiva, los lectores debían identificar una palabra perteneciente al texto inicial, previo al contrafactual, o bien relacionada con los eventos contrafactuales. El Experimento 1 mostró que 500 ms después de leer eventos en formato contrafactual, los eventos iniciales eran más accesibles que después de leer los mismos eventos criticos en formato factual. Ello indica que se produce actualización del discurso en los contextos factuales, pero no en los contrafactuales. Sin embargo, los eventos críticos resultaron igualmente accesibles en ambos formatos, indicando que el escenario alternativo "como si" también se activó en los contrafactuales. El Experimento 2 demostró que los eventos iniciales continuaron accesibles 1500 ms después de leer los contrafactuales, pero el escenario alternativo "como si" se volvió menos accessible. En suma, los experimentos indicaron que el significado realista de los contrafactuales impide la actualización del discurso tanto en la etapa temprana como en la tardía mientras que el significado "como si" sólo se activó en la etapa inicial(AU)

This paper explores the temporal course of discourse updating after reading counterfactual events. To test the accessibility to discourse information, readers were asked to identify probes related to initial events in the text, previous to the counterfactual, or probes related to the critical counterfactual events. Experiment 1 showed that 500 ms after reading events in counterfactual format, initial events were more accessible than after reading the same critical events in factual format. This suggests that discourse updating occurs in factuals, but not in counterfactuals. However, the critical events were equally accessible in both formats, indicating that the alternative "as if" scenario was also activated in counterfactuals. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the initial events continued accessible 1500 ms after reading counterfactuals, but the alternative "as if" scenario becomes less accessible. In sum, the experiments indicate that the realistic meaning of counterfactuals prevents discourse updating at both the early and the late stage, whereas the "as if" meaning was only activated at the initial stage(AU)

Processing inflectional and derivational morphology: electrophysiological evidence from Spanish.

The goal of this paper is to study possible differences between the processing of inflectional vs. derivational morphology in Spanish word recognition using electrophysiological measures. A lexical decision task to target words preceded by morphological-related (or unrelated) primes was used. The orthographic and phonological overlap and the grammatical class for the two experimental conditions were exactly the same. Examples of the related conditions were, for inflection, NIÑO-NIÑA ("girl"-"boy"), and for derivation, RAMO-RAMA ("bunch"-"branch"). These conditions were compared with unrelated pairs without orthographic, phonological or semantic relationships. An attenuation of the N-400 component was found for both related conditions from 300 ms until 450 ms (until 500 ms for inflections only). In addition, different locations were suggested by the source analysis. These findings are consistent with accounts that argue for differences between the processing of inflections and derivations.

Gender activation in transparent and opaque words / Activación de género en palabras transparentes y opacas

Two reaction time experiments were carried out to examine the morphological gender processing of Spanish words that were either transparent -that is, ending in o/a (e.g., banco - bank)-or opaque- that is, without superficial gender marking (e.g., virtud - virtue). In Experiment 1, participants categorized the gender of a transparent gender target preceded by a derived word of the same gender (e.g., banquillo-dock, masculine) or of different gender (e.g., banqueta-stool, feminine). A negative priming gender effect indicates the use of strategic-attentional mechanisms to decide the gender of the target, but also automatic computation of the prime gender. Experiment 2 used a lexical decision task with the stimuli of Experiment 1 in addition to opaque gender words. The results show longer reaction times for transparent gender words with regard to opaque items. This effect was possibly due to thelexical requirements of the task: lexical decision, and also because transparent words are morphologically more complex than opaque words. Finally, in both experiments, there was negative priming: when prime and target were of the same gender, reaction times were longer. This effect indicates that participants cannot ignore the gender of the prime when they respond to the target (AU)

Dos experimentos de tiempo de reacción se realizaron para evaluar el procesamiento del género en palabras del español con género transparente, terminadas en -o/-a (e.g., banco) y palabras opacas, terminadas en consonantes (e.g., virtud). En el experimento 1 los participantes efectuaron una tarea de categorización de género en la que debían decidir el género de un target precedido por una palabra del mismo género (e.g., banquillo-BANCO) o de diferente género (e.g., banqueta-BANCO). Los resultados indicaron un efecto de priming negativo, estoindica el uso de una estrategia atencional para decidir el género del target, pero también un cálculo automático del género del prime. En el experimento 2 se realizó una tarea de decisión léxica con los mismos estímulos del experimento 1, añadiéndose estímulos de género opaco. Los resultados mostrarontiempos de reacción más largos para palabras de género transparente con respecto a las opacas, esto porque las primeras son morfológicamente más complejas que las segundas y también a que se trata de tareas léxicas distintas. En ambos experimentos encontramos un efecto de priming negativo cuando prime y target correspondían al mismo género. Este efecto podría indicar que los participantes no pueden ignorar el género del prime cuando responden al target (AU)

Gender activation in transparent and opaque words.

Two reaction time experiments were carried out to examine the morphological gender processing of Spanish words that were either transparent -that is, ending in o/a (e.g., banco - bank)-or opaque-that is, without superficial gender marking (e.g., virtud - virtue). In Experiment 1, participants categorized the gender of a transparent gender target preceded by a derived word of the same gender (e.g., banquillo-dock, masculine) or of different gender (e.g., banqueta-stool, feminine). A negative priming gender effect indicates the use of strategic-attentional mechanisms to decide the gender of the target, but also automatic computation of the prime gender. Experiment 2 used a lexical decision task with the stimuli of Experiment 1 in addition to opaque gender words. The results show longer reaction times for transparent gender words with regard to opaque items. This effect was possibly due to the lexical requirements of the task: lexical decision, and also because transparent words are morphologically more complex than opaque words. Finally, in both experiments, there was negative priming: when prime and target were of the same gender, reaction times were longer. This effect indicates that participants cannot ignore the gender of the prime when they respond to the target.

Determining the time course of lexical frequency and age of acquisition using ERP.

OBJECTIVE: The main goal of the present study was to dissociate the effects on reading of frequency, age of acquisition (AoA) and imageability using the evoked response potential paradigm. METHOD: Twenty participants read words from three experimental conditions: high and low frequency, late and early age of acquisition and high and low imageability. RESULTS: High frequency words produced more positive mean amplitude than low frequency words in the 175-360 ms post-stimulus onset time window and late AoA produced more negative amplitudes than early AoA in the 400-610 ms window. Imageability did not produce any effect in any time window tested. Brain electromagnetic tomography showed the most activated cortical areas for each category of stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: The lexical frequency of words seems to affect an early phase in the recognition process, perhaps at the level of the orthographic input lexicon, while AoA was observed at a later stage, indicating that this variable influence processing at a semantic level or at the links between semantics and phonology. SIGNIFICANCE: EEG permits the researcher to investigate the time course, and approximate location in the brain, of psycholinguistic variables.

Canceling updating in the comprehension of counterfactuals embedded in narratives.

Participants were given counterfactual sentences--for example, "If Mary had won the lottery she would have bought a Mercedes car"--or factual sentences--for example, "Because Mary won the lottery, she bought a Mercedes car"--embedded in short narratives. Reading times showed that readers were immediately sensitive to the special status of counterfactual information (Experiment 1). In addition, probe-recognition latencies demonstrated that old information was more accessible in counterfactual than in factual stories, and new information was equally accessible in both kinds of stories (Experiment 2). However, after reading additional clauses, new information became less accessible in counterfactual than in factual stories (Experiment 3). These results suggest that counterfactual events are momentarily represented but are later suppressed and the readers' attention goes back to previous events in the story.