INCIHUSA   20883
INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS HUMANAS, SOCIALES Y AMBIENTALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Consolidation of new verbal meanings: an erp study during word learning
Autor/es:
LAURA KACZER; PAMELA LOPES DA CUNHA; CECILIA FORCATO; SILVANO ZANUTTO; MARIA EUGENIA PEDREIRA; ALEJANDRO WAINSELBOIM
Lugar:
New Orleans
Reunión:
Congreso; 52nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research; 2012
Institución organizadora:
Society for Psychophysiological Research
Resumen:
The ability to learn new words is a fundamental process in language acquisition that is active throughout life. An intriguing question is how new words consolidate their status as familiar and meaningful memories stored in our brains. The current study addresses the consolidation process of new verbal meanings in adults, using an artificial language paradigm that involves cross-situational pairing of images and visual non-words. Each experiment includes two phases: training and testing session, separated by 48h. The protocol consisted of different visual scenes presented on a computer screen (two geometrical figures, one static and the other performing one of 10 possible movements). A three-word sentence describing the scene in an artificial language was presented visually. Participants had to learn which non-word referred to each movement while their electroencephalographic activity was recorded. A second group (interference) received a second training protocol with a differente list of movements and non-words after the first. Participants increased their success rate from training to test session, revealing that new information was consolidated as a long term memory. The interference treatment produced an increase in response time, revealing impairment in an implicit component of the memory trace. The appearance of a fronto-parietal negativity compatible with an N400 was found in trials that presented a mismatch between movement and verbal non-word during training.  Results support the idea of an early semantic integration that allows the acquisition of new verbal terms.