Last Minute Changes
Saturday, October 01st, 2011 [17:20 - 19:20]
PS_2.125 - Digits vs. Pictures: the influence of stimulus type on language switching
Declerck, M. , Philipp, A. M. & Koch, I.
RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Psychology
The preferred stimuli in language-switching studies are either digits or pictures. However, the relation between both types of stimuli remains unclear and the influence of stimulus type on language switching has not been examined so far. Yet, one could assume that digits are quite specific as they represent one single semantic group and usually have a large phonological overlap between languages - which is not necessarily present in a set of pictures. In the present study, we directly compare digit naming and picture naming in a German/English language-switching experiment. To further examine the role of semantic and phonological similarity, participants performed four conditions with nine stimuli each: 1) Digits, 2) Semantically-related pictures, 3) Pictures depicting cognates, and 4) Control pictures. While digits were named significantly faster than pictures, there seemed to be a less pronounced effect with respect to switch costs. However, while switch costs were similar between cognates and numbers, we observed smaller switch costs for numbers than for the semantically-related condition. Thus, the experiment suggests a role of phonological overlap in language switching.
PS_2.126 - Inhibitory control across mental disorders
Soriano, M. F. 1 , Lozano, V. 2 , Aznarte, J. I. 1 , Gómez-Ariza, C. J. 3 & Bajo, M. T. 2
1 Hospital Universitario San Agustin de Linares, Spain.
2 Departamento de Psicología Experimental y Fisiología del Comportamiento, Universidad de Granada, Spain.
3 Departamento de Psicología., Universidad de Jaén, Spain.
From early definitions of psychotic disorders (e.g. schizophrenia) there has been a strong emphasis on the cognitive deficits associated to many psychotic symptoms. However, possible cognitive dysfunctions have been scarcely studied in personality and affective disorders. These patients have been classically considered to have preserved intelligence and good cognitive functioning. In previous studies, we have found that schizophrenic patients have clear deficits in inhibitory control, and that these deficits are related to some symptoms (e.g. hallucinations). Now we have extended our research to other diagnostic groups. We think that inhibitory deficits can be observed in most mental disorders and that cognitive impairment is related to symptoms and functioning, more than to specific diagnostic categories. In order to explore this issue, we have studied inhibitory control across different disorders, with a variety of experimental and neuropsychological tasks. Results show that impairments in inhibitory control are present in affective and personality disorders, as well as in schizophrenia, supporting the idea that there are important commonalities between different mental disorders. Research about cognitive function can be a valuable tool in the classification of mental disorders.
PS_2.127 - Cued language switching in sentence reading: exploring the asymmetry of the cost
Ibáñez, A. 1 , Morales, L. 2 & Bajo, M. T. 2
1 Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (bcbl)
2 University of Granada
The asymmetric switching cost between languages has been widely found in bilingual production tasks (Meuter and Allport, 1999). This asymmetry has been suggested to be the result of a top-down inhibitory process directed to the language not in use. However, alternative explanations have been proposed as well (Finkbeiner, Janssen, Almeida, Caramazza, 2006). The goal of the current study is to investigate the relationship between the asymmetric cost and top-down processes. In order to do so, we designed a sentence reading task for later repetition in which two types of color cues indicated the language of the sentence. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with the cues immediately before the appearance of sentences (external language cuing); in Experiment 2, the language of the sentence was cued by the color of the first word (internal language cuing). Our rationale was that external cuing would strengthen the top-down processes, while internal cuing would not elicit a top down expectancy of the language of the sentences. Then, if the asymmetric cost is an index of inhibitory control, we would expect that switching asymmetries will be more pronounced in the case of external cuing.