title: Electrophysiological difference between the representations of causal judgment and associative judgment in semantic memory.
abstract: Causally related concepts like "virus" and "epidemic" and general associatively related concepts like "ring" and "emerald" are represented and accessed separately. The Evoked Response Potential (ERP) procedure was used to examine the representations of causal judgment and associative judgment in semantic memory. Participants were required to remember a task cue (causal or associative) presented at the beginning of each trial, and assess whether the relationship between subsequently presented words matched the initial task cue. The ERP data showed that an N400 effect (250-450 ms) was more negative for unrelated words than for all related words. Furthermore, the N400 effect elicited by causal relations was more positive than for associative relations in causal cue condition, whereas no significant difference was found in the associative cue condition. The centrally distributed late ERP component (650-750 ms) elicited by the causal cue condition was more positive than for the associative cue condition. These results suggested that the processing of causal judgment and associative judgment in semantic memory recruited different degrees of attentional and executive resources.
authors: Research Centre for Special Economic Zone Research, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Research Centre for Brain Function and Psychological Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors: Qingfei
authors: Q
authors: Chen
authors: Research Centre for Brain Function and Psychological Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
authors: Xiuling
authors: X
authors: Liang
authors: Research Centre for Brain Function and Psychological Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China. Electronic address: leiyi821@vip.sina.com.
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Lei
authors: Research Centre for Brain Function and Psychological Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China. Electronic address: lihongwrm@vip.sina.com.
authors: Hong
authors: H
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Associative relations; Causal relations; ERP; N400