Neural correlates of word learning and meaning acquisition
The series of studies that comprise this dissertation are aimed at simulating vocabulary learning and meaning acquisition of different types of words, namely words which differ in imageability. For this purpose, the human simulation paradigm is the best option to approach the question of how the mea...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2007 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | CBUC, CESCA |
| Repositorio: | TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/2633 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://www.tdx.cat/TDX-1129107-094037 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/2633 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Adolescència Infantesa Generalització de la informació Transmissió del coneixement Aprenentatge Llenguatge Cognició Adultesa Semàntica Ciències de la Salut 159.9 |
| Sumario: | The series of studies that comprise this dissertation are aimed at simulating vocabulary learning and meaning acquisition of different types of words, namely words which differ in imageability. For this purpose, the human simulation paradigm is the best option to approach the question of how the meanings of words are learned. It also offers the advantage of using electrophysiological and hemodynamic techniques to explore the underlying processes and neural regions that sustain on-line word learning and that, with the use of infants, would have been difficult or impossible to study. <br/><br/>In order to study the meaning acquisition of new words, the human simulation paradigm was adopted (Gillette et al., 1999). In the first series of experiments (Chapters 2 and 3), adults were provided with congruent and incongruent semantic contexts from which they had to derive the meanings of new words. This strategy was further applied in order to understand the neural mechanisms involved in learning concrete and abstract words (Chapters 4 and 5). <br/><br/>More specifically, Chapter 2 analyzes the interaction of semantic information congruency and meaning resolution using event-related brain potentials (ERP) (experiments 1 and 3). A different experiment explores the effects of context congruence on lexical acquisition using a self-paced reading paradigm (experiment 2). Chapter 3 examines the localization of cortical areas of successful meaning acquisition with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and investigates the neural network for lexical learning (experiment 4). In Chapter 4, the self¬paced reading paradigm is used to study meaning acquisition of concrete and abstract words. First, a reanalysis of experiment 2 is presented (experiment 2b). Experiment 5 investigates abstract word learning from congruent and incongruent sentential contexts. Afterward, a comparison between experiments 2b and 5 is presented. In experiment 6, the simultaneous acquisition of concrete and abstract words is studied using the self¬paced paradigm. Finally, Chapter 5 examines the localization of cortical areas differently involved in meaning acquisition of concrete and abstract words using fMRI (experiment 7). |
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