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Concreteness and Emotionality Effects on Visual Word Processing Using Event-Related Potentials in the Persian Language

Document Type : Original article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

2 M.Sc. in Psychology Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Professor, Department of Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

4 Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: The term concreteness and emotionality effects refers to the reality that concrete and emotion words are processed faster and more accurately than abstract and neutral words. This effect has been observed in various cognitive tasks and several models have been proposed to account it. The aim of present study is investigating concreteness and emotionality effects on semantic processing in the Persian language using Event-related potentials. Method: A quasi-experimental design, repeated measures is employed to examine concreteness as well as emotionality effects on visual word processing. 24 male students were taken by convenience sampling and set in the experimental condition that included a lexical decision task. The activation of neural networks was recorded while participants responded to concrete, abstract and emotional words. Findings: Comparison of related-potentials showed that emotional words elicited an early and more pronounced P300 than both concrete and abstract words. Nonetheless, concrete and abstract words evoked late and larger N400 and P600 In the second and third time windows respectively. Conclusion: The pattern of results suggest that concreteness effect in Persian is not entirely consistent with existing theories provided in this paper, so there may be an increased chance for other explanations to clarify the concreteness and emotionality effect on visual word processing in the Persian language.

Keywords

References
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Neuropsychology
Volume 8, Issue 28 - Serial Number 28
April 2022
Pages 9-20
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