Dataset Information

Stroop effects from newly learned color words: effects of memory consolidation and episodic context.

ABSTRACT: The Stroop task is an excellent tool to test whether reading a word automatically activates its associated meaning, and it has been widely used in mono- and bilingual contexts. Despite of its ubiquity, the task has not yet been employed to test the automaticity of recently established word-concept links in novel-word-learning studies, under strict experimental control of learning and testing conditions. In three experiments, we thus paired novel words with native language (German) color words via lexical association and subsequently tested these words in a manual version of the Stroop task. Two crucial findings emerged: When novel word Stroop trials appeared intermixed among native-word trials, the novel-word Stroop effect was observed immediately after the learning phase. If no native color words were present in a Stroop block, the novel-word Stroop effect only emerged 24 h later. These results suggest that the automatic availability of a novel word's meaning depends either on supportive context from the learning episode and/or on sufficient time for memory consolidation. We discuss how these results can be reconciled with the complementary learning systems account of word learning.

SUBMITTER: Geukes S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4357220 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Stroop effects from newly learned color words: effects of memory consolidation and episodic context.

Geukes Sebastian S Gaskell M Gareth MG Zwitserlood Pienie P

Frontiers in psychology 20150312

The Stroop task is an excellent tool to test whether reading a word automatically activates its associated meaning, and it has been widely used in mono- and bilingual contexts. Despite of its ubiquity, the task has not yet been employed to test the automaticity of recently established word-concept links in novel-word-learning studies, under strict experimental control of learning and testing conditions. In three experiments, we thus paired novel words with native language (German) color words vi ...[more]

PMID: 25814973

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Project description:Word learning depends not only on efficient online binding of phonological, orthographic and lexical information, but also on consolidation of new word representations into permanent lexical memory. Work on word learning under a variety of contexts indicates that reading and language skill impact facility of word learning in both print and speech. In addition, recent research finds that individuals with language impairments show deficits in both initial word form learning and in maintaining newly learned representations over time, implicating mechanisms associated with maintenance that may be driven by deficits in overnight consolidation. Although several recent studies have explored the neural bases of overnight consolidation of newly learned words, no extant work has examined individual differences in overnight consolidation at the neural level. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating how individual differences in reading and language skills modulate patterns of neural activation associated with newly learned words following a period of overnight consolidation. Specifically, a community sample of adolescents and young adults with significant variability in reading and oral language (vocabulary) ability were trained on two spoken artificial lexicons, one in the evening on the day before fMRI scanning and one in the morning just prior to scanning. Comparisons of activation between words that were trained and consolidated vs. those that were trained but not consolidated revealed increased cortical activation in a number of language associated and memory associated regions. In addition, individual differences in age, reading skill and vocabulary modulated learning rate in our artificial lexicon learning task and the size of the cortical consolidation effect in the precuneus/posterior cingulate, such that older readers and more skilled readers had larger cortical consolidation effects in this learning-critical region. These findings suggest that age (even into late adolescence) and reading and language skills are important individual differences that affect overnight consolidation of newly learned words. These findings have significant implications for understanding reading and language disorders and should inform pedagogical models.

Dataset Information

Stroop effects from newly learned color words: effects of memory consolidation and episodic context.

Publications

Stroop effects from newly learned color words: effects of memory consolidation and episodic context.

Similar Datasets

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