An Event-related Potential Investigation on Associative Encoding and the Effects of Intra-list Semantic Similarity

• Main Author: Kim, Alice Sun-Nam
• Other Authors: Picton, Terence W.
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: association formation; event-related potential; intra-list semantic similarity; P555; N425; late wave; 0989
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/17435

Event-related potentials were recorded as subjects were presented with pairs of words, one word at a time, to examine the electrocortical manifestations of association formation and the effect of intra-list semantic similarity. Two types of lists were presented: Same – all pairs belonged to the same semantic category; Different – all pairs belonged to a different semantic category. Subjects were told to memorize the pairs for a following paired associate recall test. Recall was better for the Different than Same lists. Subsequent recall was predicted by the amplitudes of a potential lasting throughout the epoch and the P555 to each word of a pair (likely reflecting state- and item-related encoding activity, respectively), as well as a late positive wave that occurred after the offset of the second word, which is thought to reflect association formation. A larger N425 was elicited by pairs in the Different than Same lists, likely reflecting semantic integration.