Exploring memory consolidation for novel word forms and meanings: an ERP study

BAVASSI LUZ; DEGIORGI SOFÍA; LAURINO JULIETA; FORCATO CECILIA; PEDREIRA, MARÍA EUGENIA; KACZER LAURA

Congreso; Congress of Latin American Brain Mapping Network; 2017

Humans are phenomenally good at learning words. An acquired new word must be integrated with existing knowledge. The dynamics of this integration is an open topic in the neurolinguistic area. How long does it take for a new word to become a part of a mental lexicon? The present research assessed the temporal features of the word memory formation and integration. Young adults were instructed to learn a set of new words (e.g. ?pefaro?) each associated with a picture of a novel object and a definition (e.g. ?pefaro is a tropical bird?). The integration of word meanings was determined at 30 min or 48 h after learning by measuring the extent to which the newly learned words were able to prime semantically related words (e.g. ?pefaro?- ?parrot?). In addition, novel words were compared with already established words to analyse their lexical status. To make a step towards the identification of the neurophysiological markers of lexical access for novel words we recorded the EEG event-related potentials during the behavioural priming task. Our results showed that novel words revealed to be lexically integrated already at 30 min after learning, producing a reliable semantic priming effect and a modulation of the N400 component. This pattern of results suggests that novel word representations were formed and integrated within a very short period of offline consolidation.