Semantic priming vs. visual priming: the tip of the tongue phenomenon

According to Levelt (1989), an adult of secondary education has an active vocabulary that contains about thirty thousand words, which makes it understandable that the The study of lexicon access processes is so fascinating for researchers, as they try to discover how a so quick choice of the right word during fluent speech, requiring a series of lexical retrieval processes practically automated. However, in certain circumstances, there are difficulties in precisely selecting a word among all those that we have available in our adult lexicon.

Different disorders or alterations can cause difficulties when accessing language. From the seriousness of aphasias and other language problems that have been caused by brain damage, to errors in the speech or the well-known phenomenon of the tip of the tongue, which can be considered as more "normal" and everyday, not having greater importance. The latter, the Punta de Lengua phenomenon, has aroused special interest in scientific research to investigate the processes of selection and production of words. At PsicologíaOnline we explain everything related to this, starting with the

Index

1. Introduction to priming and the tip of the tongue phenomenon
2. Participants
3. Materials
4. Process
5. Design
6. Results
7. Discussion

The tip of the tongue phenomenon (PL, in Spanish, TOT “Tip of tongue”, in English) thus constitutes, in relation to lexical processing, a clear example that the subject may present difficulties or momentary blocks in accessing the phonological representation of the word. This seems especially recurrent the older the person is, according to different investigations carried out (Maylor, 1990ª; Brown and Nix, 1996). Therefore, in the present experiment, elderly subjects would not be included, in order to control this effect.

During the PL state, one has the intense sensation of knowing the word, of being about to reach consciousness, but it is not accessed. The person usually remembers superficial information of the searched term, tries to search for synonyms or alternative words as a strategy to infer and emit the word. The subject knows that he has the phonetic information that he needs and that he has it stored in his memory and that, sooner or later, he will end up being able to access it. It is a common and frequent phenomenon among the population, especially in old age, although there is even talk of a high frequency among students due to demands. The highest probability is usually given with proper nouns, followed by common ones and, lastly, verbs and adjectives.

From the theoretical point of view, there is a general agreement from the connectionist models (MacKay and Burke, 1990) as from the serial models (Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer, 1999) that the problem is a failure in phonological activation once the semantic representation is activated correspondent.

Brown and McNeill (1966) devised an experiment in which the phenomenon was studied through the presentation of definitions of little words. Frequent questions to which the participants had to answer with three written responses: they knew the word, they did not know it, they knew it but they did not agreed. The results of his investigations showed that, in a state of PL, the speaker possesses information about the word that he cannot recover, especially the letter initial and final, the number of syllables and the position of the main accent, which showed that the lexical retrieval is not carried out from the all or nothing, in a single step, but that there are at least two types of differentiated cognitive representations: phonological information and semantic information, and whose access also corresponds to processes differentiated.

Connectionist models they propose the brain and neuronal metaphor that explains the cognitive process of lexical access through “neural networks” composed of nodes and connections between these nodes. According to this model, the most frequently used word units are more closely connected to lower-level nodes, such as phonological and orthographic features. Thus, when a node is activated or a connection occurs, the activation will propagate in all directions, increasing all the representations that visually, phonologically and semantically resemble the word wanted. On the other hand, each time a word is processed, the connections corresponding to this word are strengthened (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981), so one of the important aspects for this model would be the frequency of the word, which would make the words of high frequency not susceptible to PL, while those of low, they would be, because their model advocates a central importance to the strength of the connections (the higher the frequency of speaking, the stronger the connections, the less LP risk).

Taking into account the results obtained by Brown and McNeill, and taking into consideration the explanation of connectionist models, we set out this experiment with the objective of obtaining Experimental evidence in favor of a type of activator, semantic or perceptual, which would suppose a previous activation and reduce the latency time in the recovery of the word in the PL, as well as the confirmation of the theory that low frequency words are affected to a greater extent by this phenomenon, which results in a longer reaction time before them.

Therefore, two types of facilitators (priming) will be presented in the tasks to be carried out: a perceptual priming and a semantic priming, in categories of similar words so that it can be comparative, and classified in high and low frequency.

The priming effect refers to the influence that a stimulus has on the subsequent performance of the processing system (Schacter, 1995). We can distinguish several types of priming, among them those chosen for the present research design: perceptual priming and semantic priming (Blaxton, 1989).

Semantic priming is affected by manipulations of the processing level, while perceptual priming is susceptible to physical manipulations of stimuli.

Perceptual priming is one that is going to be expressed through indirect evidence. In these tests, processing is determined by the physical characteristics of the keys in the experiment. According to Tulving & Schacter (1990), it is a pre-semantic phenomenon that would reflect the activity of the Perceptual Representation System. We can propose it in a visual, auditory, olfactory, haptic format. In the experiment, it will be presented in visual format.

The semantic priming is one that is going to be expressed through indirect tests in which a conceptual processing of the stimuli is required. It can be affected by semantic coding operations, and it is practically not sensitive to changes in the surface properties of information. Stimulus processing and its implicit recovery is a function of semantic organization (Tulving & Schacter, 1990). An aspect that we will take into account when choosing the semantic priming will be that offered by Shelton and Martín (1992) In their research, that is, a distinction must be made between associative and non-associative semantic priming, since the priming automatic is obtained for associatively related words, but not for words that are semantically related but not associatively. This could also influence the latency time that we study. According to experimental results by Groot (1990), facilitation effects are shown only in the associatively related condition. In our case, then, to present greater facilitation, we will present only associative-type semantic priming.

Finally, according to Craik & Lockhart (1972), there are two levels of processing: superficial and deep. The information would be encoded at superficial levels when it comes to processing based on the characteristics of the stimulus, while deep processing would be the one that occurs from the elaboration on the meaning.

Next, we explain the method.

In the investigation they will participate 180 subjects (90 men and 90 women) voluntarily, from 25 to 55 years old, distributed in six age groups (25-30 / 31-35 / 36-40 / 41-45 / 46-50 / 51-55). The educational level factor is controlled, selecting all subjects with a medium / higher level (high school / university studies). Recruitment will be done between different groups, participating without any remuneration. The participants will not present sensory, neurological or substance use disorders that could affect the development of the tasks.

As devices, two computers have been used, in which the definitions have been appearing, a questionnaire in which each subject must indicate their name, age and sex, and a pencil to write down.

Regarding the facilitators presented, the computer was used for both with the appearance of the priming (either semantic or visual) when the PL phenomenon is occurring, by pressing the button "Intro". Thus, it will be only at this moment when the facilitator will appear, helping the speaker to emit the word target.

The target words will be a total of 80 words, mix of high and low frequency, distributed in the categories: common names, names of emblematic cities, names of famous people and adjectives. These categories are similar to those used by other researchers, Burke et al. (1991). It is considered to present a high number of words since the reproduction of the PL phenomenon in the laboratory is complex, hence, an attempt is made to present a sufficient number of opportunities to produce the PL phenomenon.

For definitions, the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy will be used (En http://www.rae.es/) (V.2003). In the case of the names of emblematic cities and famous people, ad hoc definitions were made.

To choose the low frequency words, the frequency dictionary of Alameda and Cuetos (1995) was used, using words such as mausoleum, dungeon, reliquary, etc... High frequency words will be words that are used regularly in different everyday contexts.

For each of the definitions, a semantic facilitator or a visual facilitator.

A word example: Famous Character -> Elisabeth Taylor.

Definition: Actress who started in the world of cinema at the age of seven, was married numerous times and has been a partner of Richard Burton in a very famous film. / Visual priming: scene from the movie "Lassie" in which the actress appears.

A word example: Low frequency common name? Zeppelin.

Definition: 1. m. More Airship Balloon (R.A.E.) / Visual Priming? photo of a zeppelin.

A word example: High frequency common name? Cooking pot.

Definition: 1. F. Round clay or metal pot, which commonly forms a belly, with a wide neck and mouth and with one or two handles, which is used to cook food, heat water, etc. (R.A.E.) / Associative semantic priming: pan? cooking pot.

The experiment will be carried out individually, in an adequately lit and quiet room. Each session should not exceed 15 minutes, to avoid the fatigue effect. Before starting the task, you will be offered a comprehensive explanation of the task to be carried out as well as the records to be made, handing them the material. In each session, a researcher will be present who will collect the reaction times between the appearance of the definition in the screen until the advance to the next definition, by means of a specific time recording program in another computer.

The procedure is a word evocation task under PL conditions. It will consist of the following:

The computer screen will display the target word definitions. We will not take into account the presentation time, as we do not consider it relevant in experiment. The definition can remain present as long as necessary until the next one. Faced with these, the subject must write on the questionnaire that the corresponding word will have been provided.

• If you know the word and get the evocation, press the green button, defined for this purpose, for the next definition.
• If you do not know the word or the PL is presented, press the red button to advance to the next definition.
• If the PL occurs, that is, if they know it but cannot access it, a yellow button will be pressed and a priming (semantic or visual) will appear randomly. If, even with the facilitator, the subject cannot say the word, he will press the red button again that will take him to the next definition. In this case, an “x” will be entered in the registration questionnaire in the corresponding box “I could not access the word”. If the circumstance arises that the word in question cannot be accessed, but a synonymous word appears, it will also be recorded in the questionnaire, which will also return a value indicative of the words "intruder" (persistent alternative words that block the appearance of the word objective) that, although it is not a reason for the present investigation, can give us a point of reference for other experiments.

Regarding the pre-experiment tests, each subject will be able to carry out four practice tests. It is explained to them that it is an investigation on memory, but it is not explained to them that it is about the PL phenomenon.

In the presented task, a mixed factorial design 6x2x1x4x2x2x2, with two inter-subject independent variables (age and sex variable) and five inter-subject independent variables (task, category, frequency, prime and target).

• Independent variable Intersubjects “Age” with 6 levels (25-30 / 31-35 / 36-40 / 41-45 / 46-50 / 51-55)
• Independent variable Intersubjects "Sex" with 2 levels (men / women) Independent variable Intrasubjects "Task" with 1 level (word evocation)
• Independent variable Intrasubjects "Category" with 4 levels (common names, emblematic cities, famous people, adjectives)
• Independent variable within subjects "Frequency" with 2 levels (high frequency, low frequency)
• Independent variable Intrasubjects “Prime” with 2 levels (Visual, Semantic)
• Independent variable Intrasubjects “Target” with 2 levels (word, not word)

The dependent variable was the time it took the subject to issue the response, that is, the reaction time.

What is expected to be obtained are lower latency times, depending on the priming presented and depending on the frequency of the word (high or low), confirming the connectionist theory and confirming whether the lower latency time corresponds to the presentation of a certain priming or not.

Based on connectionist models and the results obtained by the researchers Brown and McNeill, according to which the frequency of the word is relevant at the time of the PL phenomenon, which produces a series of activations at the visual, semantic and phonological level when the connection of a node occurs and the speaker possesses the information of the word, such as the letter initial and final syllables, the number of syllables and the position of the main accent, the expected results are lower latency times when displayed definitions / questions about high frequency words and as a novelty it is expected to know what type of activation prevails over the others based on the results obtained from Brown and McNeil. That is, since they obtained as a result that the speaker has information about the word, although he cannot access it, the experiment will check if they are obtained shorter reaction times, even when the help is being carried out with a semantic and non-phonological priming, which would be the one that could better favor access to the word according to they. In the corresponding analysis of results, all the data that we obtain related to responses will be excluded. correct but not occurring under the PL phenomenon as well as incorrect answers, which do not correspond to the word target.

Taking into consideration that this research is only a design proposal, we do not have certain results of reaction times to be able to verify the hypothesis raised in the beginning of the report and review, in this way, if the results confirm or not the predictions indicated. Therefore, depending on whether these predictions are fulfilled or not, we could conclude that the connectionist model is confirmed in the access to the lexicon, in the sense that produce different activations (visual, phonological and semantic) and that, in addition, there can be a process of competition between these activations, in the way that the interactive model pointed out activation (AMI) of McClelland and Rumelhart (1981), when they described the recognition of words by a mechanism of parallel activation and competition at the lexical level of representation. On the other hand, depending on the results obtained with the presentation of the two facilitators, depending on whether there is a greater LP effect in high or low frequency words, we will obtain a new confirmation of the data obtained by Brown and McNeill, and it would also confirm the connectionist models for which each time a word is processed the connections (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981), which would lead us to the conclusion that low-frequency words are going to be candidates for access problems before high-frequency words. frequency.

Through lexicon access research, we can implement different training strategies for different difficulties language, such as strategies so that subjects with language disorders can perform certain trainings for a better use of its resources or strategies for students with learning disabilities, through the development of games linguistic.

In conclusion, the study of access to the lexicon and transmission processes in the network of nodes as well as the activations have not yet reached definitive conclusions, so all kinds of research carried out at the In this regard, they will contribute greatly to alleviate or improve different language disorders, an essential aspect of the human being in their interaction Social.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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