On the Screen, In the Mind: An ERP Investigation into the Interaction Between Visuo-Spatial Information and Spatial Language During On-Line Processing
type: CreativeWork
description: This project used Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to explore neurophysiological brain responses to prepositional phrases involving concrete and abstract reference nouns (e.g., "plate" and "moment", respectively) after the presentation of objects with varying spatial features. Prepositional phrases were headed by in or on and were either matching (e.g., "in the plate/moment") or mismatching (e.g., "on the plate/moment"). Conjunction phrase matches and fillers were also presented. Before half of the concrete-phrase items, a photographic depiction of the reference noun was presented. In these photographs, objects were displayed in a way that was either more appropriate for in or for on. Similarly, before half of the abstract-phrase trials, photographs of nonce objects with spatial features that were either more appropriate for in or for on were presented. For the remaining trials, either no picture was displayed, or a picture of a random object was displayed. Results indicated that linguistic and visual context impacted ERPs to words in these phrases. Beginning with linguistic context, all prepositional phrases yielded negative slow-wave activity in parietal and occipital sites, while conjunction phrases did not. Because this negativity is modulated by processes involved in the generation and manipulation of spatial imagery, this finding indicates that a similar spatial-image-formation process is involved in the processing of both concrete and abstract prepositional phrases. There were differences between responses to concrete and abstract phrases as well. Mismatching concrete reference nouns yielded a relatively large centro-parietal N400 response, suggesting that these nouns were semantically unexpected. Mismatching abstract nouns, on the other hand, yielded a late, marginally significant positivity, showing that the presentation of these nouns required phrase reanalysis and/or reconstruction. The latter result casts doubt on accounts of polysemy claiming that abstra…
abstract: This project used Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to explore neurophysiological brain responses to prepositional phrases involving concrete and abstract reference nouns (e.g., "plate" and "moment", respectively) after the presentation of objects with varying spatial features. Prepositional phrases were headed by in or on and were either matching (e.g., "in the plate/moment") or mismatching (e.g., "on the plate/moment"). Conjunction phrase matches and fillers were also presented. Before half of the concrete-phrase items, a photographic depiction of the reference noun was presented. In these photographs, objects were displayed in a way that was either more appropriate for in or for on. Similarly, before half of the abstract-phrase trials, photographs of nonce objects with spatial features that were either more appropriate for in or for on were presented. For the remaining trials, either no picture was displayed, or a picture of a random object was displayed. Results indicated that linguistic and visual context impacted ERPs to words in these phrases. Beginning with linguistic context, all prepositional phrases yielded negative slow-wave activity in parietal and occipital sites, while conjunction phrases did not. Because this negativity is modulated by processes involved in the generation and manipulation of spatial imagery, this finding indicates that a similar spatial-image-formation process is involved in the processing of both concrete and abstract prepositional phrases. There were differences between responses to concrete and abstract phrases as well. Mismatching concrete reference nouns yielded a relatively large centro-parietal N400 response, suggesting that these nouns were semantically unexpected. Mismatching abstract nouns, on the other hand, yielded a late, marginally significant positivity, showing that the presentation of these nouns required phrase reanalysis and/or reconstruction. The latter result casts doubt on accounts of polysemy claiming that abstra…
author: Zane, Emily
keywords: Cognition and Perception, Cognitive Neuroscience, Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, N400, parietal occipital slow-wave, prepositions, spatial imagery, lexicon, Functional Geometry
date published: 2016-06-03T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:58:31Z
provider: City University of New York - Graduate Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York