title: Modulation of event-related potentials by word repetition: the role of visual selective attention.
abstract: Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects viewed visually presented words, some of which occurred twice. Each trial consisted of two colored letter strings, the requirement being to attend to and make a word/nonword discrimination for one of the strings. Attention was manipulated by color in Experiment 1, and color and a precue were used in Experiment 2. As in previous ERP studies of word repetition, a positive offset to repeated words developed when both first and second presentations were the focus of attention. In Experiment 2, ERPs showed evidence of positive-going repetition effects in all conditions in which at least one of the two presentations of the repeated word was attended. In the visual modality, the positive-going ERP repetition effect occurs only when at least one of the two presentations of a repeated item is the object of attention, which suggests that one or more of the processes reflected by the effect is capacity limited.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Experimental and Occupational Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Otten
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Rugg
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Doyle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011603:Psychophysiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics