What you read versus what you know: Neural correlates of accessing context information and background knowledge in constructing a mental representation during reading.

2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (11) ◽  
pp. 2084-2101
Author(s):  
Marianne L. van Moort ◽  
Dietsje D. Jolles ◽  
Arnout Koornneef ◽  
Paul van den Broek
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Context Information

Are all the triangles blue? – ERP evidence for the incremental processing of German quantifier restriction

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETRA AUGURZKY ◽  
OLIVER BOTT ◽  
WOLFGANG STERNEFELD ◽  
ROLF ULRICH
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Context Information ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Incremental Processing ◽  
Compositional Semantic ◽  
Quantifier Restriction

abstractThe present ERP study investigates the neural correlates of pictorial context effects on compositional-semantic processing. We examined whether the incremental processing of questions involving quantifier restriction is modulated by the reliability of pictorial information. Contexts either allowed for an unambiguous meaning evaluation at an early sentential position or were ambiguous with respect to whether a further restrictive cue could trigger later meaning revisions. Attention was either guided towards (Experiment 1) or away from (Experiment 2) the picture–question mapping. In both experiments, negative answers elicited a broadly distributed negativity opposed to affirmative answers as soon as an unambiguous truth evaluation was possible. In the presence of ambiguous context information, the truth evaluation initially remained underspecified, as an early commitment would have resulted in the risk of a semantic reanalysis. The negativity was followed by a late positivity in Experiment 1, but not in Experiment 2, suggesting that attention towards the mismatch affected semantic processing, but only at a later time window. The current results are consistent with the notion that an incremental meaning evaluation is dependent on the reliability of contextual information.

Mental Logout: Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Regulating Temptations to Use Social Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762110013
Author(s):  
Nurit Sternberg ◽  
Roy Luria ◽  
Gal Sheppes
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Positive Potential ◽  
Contralateral Delay Activity

Individuals sometimes use social media instead of sleeping or while driving. This fact raises the crucial need for—and challenge of—successfully self-regulating potent social-media temptations. To date, however, empirical evidence showing whether social-media temptations can be self-regulated and how self-regulation can be achieved remains scarce. Accordingly, the present within-participants study ( N = 30 adults) provided causal evidence for self-regulation of social-media content and identified a potential underlying neural mechanism. We tested the premise that successful self-regulation requires limiting the mental representation of temptations in working memory. Specifically, we showed that loading working memory with neutral contents via attentional distraction, relative to passively watching tempting social-media stimuli, resulted in reduced self-reported desire to use social media, reduced initial attention allocation toward social-media stimuli (reduced late-positive-potential amplitudes), and reduced online representation of social-media stimuli in working memory (reduced contralateral-delay-activity amplitudes). These results have important implications for successfully navigating a social-media-saturated environment.

scholarly journals Neural correlates of modal displacement and discourse-updating under (un)certainty

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxime Tulling ◽  
Ryan Law ◽  
Ailís Cournane ◽  
Liina Pylkkänen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Actual World ◽  
Signal Strength ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Discourse Model ◽  
The World ◽  
Measured Activity ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Neural Signatures

ABSTRACTA hallmark of human thought is the ability to think about not just the actual world, but also about alternative ways the world could be. One way to study this contrast is through language. Language has grammatical devices for expressing possibilities and necessities, such as the words might or must. With these devices, called “modal expressions,” we can study the actual vs. possible contrast in a highly controlled way. While factual utterances such as “There is a monster under my bed” update the here-and-now of a discourse model, a modal version of this sentence, “There might be a monster under my bed,” displaces from the here-and-now and merely postulates a possibility. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to test whether the processes of discourse updating and modal displacement dissociate in the brain. Factual and modal utterances were embedded in short narratives, and across two experiments, factual expressions increased the measured activity over modal expressions. However, the localization of the increase appeared to depend on perspective: signal localizing in right temporo-parietal areas increased when updating others’ beliefs, while frontal medial areas seem sensitive to updating one’s own beliefs. The presence of modal displacement did not elevate MEG signal strength in any of our analyses. In sum, this study identifies potential neural signatures of the process by which facts get added to our mental representation of the world.

scholarly journals Brain Mechanisms of Successful Recognition through Retrieval of Semantic Context

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1694-1704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin E. Flegal ◽  
Alejandro Marín-Gutiérrez ◽  
J. Daniel Ragland ◽  
Charan Ranganath
Keyword(s):  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Semantic Context ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Context Information ◽  
Episodic Retrieval ◽  
Parahippocampal Cortex ◽  
Regional Specificity ◽  
Successful Retrieval ◽  
Context Cues ◽  
Target Words

Episodic memory is associated with the encoding and retrieval of context information and with a subjective sense of reexperiencing past events. The neural correlates of episodic retrieval have been extensively studied using fMRI, leading to the identification of a “general recollection network” including medial temporal, parietal, and prefrontal regions. However, in these studies, it is difficult to disentangle the effects of context retrieval from recollection. In this study, we used fMRI to determine the extent to which the recruitment of regions in the recollection network is contingent on context reinstatement. Participants were scanned during a cued recognition test for target words from encoded sentences. Studied target words were preceded by either a cue word studied in the same sentence (thus congruent with encoding context) or a cue word studied in a different sentence (thus incongruent with encoding context). Converging fMRI results from independently defined ROIs and whole-brain analysis showed regional specificity in the recollection network. Activity in hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex was specifically increased during successful retrieval following congruent context cues, whereas parietal and prefrontal components of the general recollection network were associated with confident retrieval irrespective of contextual congruency. Our findings implicate medial temporal regions in the retrieval of semantic context, contributing to, but dissociable from, recollective experience.

Above and beyond the content: Feelings influence mental simulations

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kellen Mrkva ◽  
Luca Cian ◽  
Leaf Van Boven
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Mental Simulation ◽  
Past Experience ◽  
Prediction Errors

Abstract Gilead et al. present a rich account of abstraction. Though the account describes several elements which influence mental representation, it is worth also delineating how feelings, such as fluency and emotion, influence mental simulation. Additionally, though past experience can sometimes make simulations more accurate and worthwhile (as Gilead et al. suggest), many systematic prediction errors persist despite substantial experience.

Mental representation of economic crisis in Italian and Swiss samples 1The authors would like to thank Maurizio Mistri for his help in the construction of items. This research was supported by a grant from the Italian Murst (ex 40%).

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Savadori ◽  
Eraldo Nicotra ◽  
Rino Rumiati ◽  
Roberto Tamborini
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
National Context ◽  
Cluster Procedure ◽  
Total N ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Important Symptom

The content and structure of mental representation of economic crises were studied and the flexibility of the structure in different social contexts was tested. Italian and Swiss samples (Total N = 98) were compared with respect to their judgments as to how a series of concrete examples of events representing abstract indicators were relevant symptoms of economic crisis. Mental representations were derived using a cluster procedure. Results showed that the relevance of the indicators varied as a function of national context. The growth of unemployment was judged to be by far the most important symptom of an economic crisis but the Swiss sample judged bankruptcies as more symptomatic than Italians who considered inflation, raw material prices and external accounts to be more relevant. A different clustering structure was found for the two samples: the locations of unemployment and gross domestic production indicators were the main differences in representations.

Reading About Persons: The Effects of Conjunctions on the Mental Representation of Person Descriptions

2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Krolak-Schwerdt ◽  
Margret Wintermantel ◽  
Nadine Junker ◽  
Julia Kneer
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Person Memory ◽  
Causal Connections ◽  
Single Person ◽  
On Line

Three experiments investigated the processing of person descriptions that consisted of a number of statements about the characteristics of a person. In one condition, each statement referred to a single person attribute and in the other condition, causal and additive conjunctions to verbally link the statements were introduced. Evidence was found that the introduction of verbal links enhanced participants’ memory about the characteristics of the described person. On-line measures of processing showed that the comprehension of person information was strongly facilitated by the introduction of verbal links. Furthermore, the results were due to the introduction of causal connections between person attributes. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for models of person memory and representation.

Automatic Stereotype Activation Is Context Dependent

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catharina Casper ◽  
Klaus Rothermund ◽  
Dirk Wentura
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Context Information ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Stereotype Activation ◽  
Social Stereotypes ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Automatic Activation ◽  
Mental Schemas

Processes involving an automatic activation of stereotypes in different contexts were investigated using a priming paradigm with the lexical decision task. The names of social categories were combined with background pictures of specific situations to yield a compound prime comprising category and context information. Significant category priming effects for stereotypic attributes (e.g., Bavarians – beer) emerged for fitting contexts (e.g., in combination with a picture of a marquee) but not for nonfitting contexts (e.g., in combination with a picture of a shop). Findings indicate that social stereotypes are organized as specific mental schemas that are triggered by a combination of category and context information.

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