A major theoretical question in cognition is how contextual information is brought to bear in identifying spoken and written words and objects. We propose to investigate the interaction of context and stimulus information in perception and immediate memory for words at four sequential points in processing, each reflected in a particular paradigm. These are: (1) an early stage of perception, sensitive to repetition blindness; (2) a somewhat later stage involving selection of one perceived word from several possible word candidates activated by that stimulus, when nonword conversion may occur; (3) a subsequent stage at which, if two words have been perceived at or near the same time and are competing for a single slot in a sentence, attentional priority is allocated to one, as in double-word selection; and (4) a short-term memory phase in which a conceptual representation of a sentence or sentence fragment tunes the meaning of words, leading to primed lexical intrusions in short-term recall. These four stages or levels serve as an initial framework for testing a modular interactive model of word identification. Three questions addressed in the proposed research are the time course of context effects, and in particular the time period over which a stimulus remains malleable and subject to reinterpretation after it has been presented; what contextual factors a given level is sensitive to; and whether more standard on-line tasks, lexical decision and naming, provide converging evidence for the model we are developing. Nineteen studies are proposed, some of which use pictured objects to investigate differences between conceptual and lexical processing. The long-range scientific significance of the work derives from the central role that written and spoken language plays in human cognition. The practical significance of the proposed work lies in the importance of understanding in detail the process of reading and language comprehension, in order to place the teaching of reading and the use of written communication on a rational scientific foundation.
| Hagmann, Carl Erick; Potter, Mary C (2016) Ultrafast scene detection and recognition with limited visual information. Vis cogn 24:2-14 |
| Hagmann, Carl Erick; Cohn, Neil (2016) The pieces fit: Constituent structure and global coherence of visual narrative in RSVP. Acta Psychol (Amst) 164:157-64 |
| Potter, Mary C; Hagmann, Carl Erick (2015) Banana or fruit? Detection and recognition across categorical levels in RSVP. Psychon Bull Rev 22:578-85 |
| Potter, Mary C; Wyble, Brad; Hagmann, Carl Erick et al. (2014) Detecting meaning in RSVP at 13 ms per picture. Atten Percept Psychophys 76:270-9 |
| Endress, Ansgar D; Potter, Mary C (2014) Large capacity temporary visual memory. J Exp Psychol Gen 143:548-65 |
| Endress, Ansgar D; Potter, Mary C (2014) Something from (almost) nothing: buildup of object memory from forgettable single fixations. Atten Percept Psychophys 76:2413-23 |
| Endress, Ansgar D (2013) Bayesian learning and the psychology of rule induction. Cognition 127:159-76 |
| Wyble, Brad; Folk, Charles; Potter, Mary C (2013) Contingent attentional capture by conceptually relevant images. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 39:861-71 |
| Endress, Ansgar D; Potter, Mary C (2012) Early conceptual and linguistic processes operate in independent channels. Psychol Sci 23:235-45 |
| Wyble, Brad; Potter, Mary C; Bowman, Howard et al. (2011) Attentional episodes in visual perception. J Exp Psychol Gen 140:488-505 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 41 publications
