Abstract
In two experiments the effect of object category on event-related potentials (ERPs) was assessed while subjects performed superordinate categorizations with pictures and words referring to objects from natural (e.g., animal) and artifactual (e.g., tool) categories. First, a category probe was shown that was presented as name in Experiment 1 and as picture in Experiment 2. Thereafter, the target stimulus was displayed. In both experiments, analyses of the ERPs to the targets revealed effects of category at about 160 msec after target onset in the pictorial modality, which can be attributed to categoryspecific differences in perceptual processing. Later, between about 300-500 msec, natural and artifactual categories elicited similar ERP effects across target and category modalities. These findings suggest that perceptual as well as semantic sources contribute to category-specific effects. They support the view that semantic knowledge associated with different categories is represented in multiple subsystems that are similarly accessed by pictures and words.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bajo, M. T. (1988). Semantic facilitation with pictures and words.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,14, 579–589.
Bertrand, O., Perrin, F., &Pernier, J. A. (1985). A theoretical justification of the average reference in topographic evoked potential studies.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,62, 462–464.
Caramazza, A., &Shelton, J. R. (1998). Domain-specific knowledge systems in the brain: The animate-inanimate distinction.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,10, 1–34.
Corbeil, J. C., &Archambault, A. (1994).The Macmillan visual dictionary: Multilingual edition. Montreal: Macmillan.
Damasio, H., Grabowski, T. J., Tranel, D., Hichwa, R. D., &Damasio, A. R. (1996). A neural basis for lexical retrieval.Nature,380, 499–505.
Dehaene, S. (1995). Electrophysiological evidence for categoryspecific word processing in the normal human brain.NeuroReport,6, 2153–2157.
De Renzi, E., &Lucchelli, F. (1994). Are semantic systems separately represented in the brain? The case of living category impairment.Cortex,30, 3–25.
Devlin, J. T., Gonnerman, L. M., Andersen, E. S., &Seidenberg, M. S. (1998). Category-specific semantic deficits in focal and widespread brain damage: A computational account.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,10, 77–94.
Farah, M. J., &McClelland, J. L. (1991). A computational model of semantic memory impairment: Modality specificity and emergent category specificity.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,120, 339–357.
Farah, M. J., McMullen, P. A., &Meyer, M. M. (1991). Can recognition of living things be selectively impaired?Neuropsychologia,29, 185–193.
Flores d’Arcais, G. B., Schreuder, R., &Glazenborg, G. (1985). Semantic activation during recognition of referential words.Psychological Research,47, 39–49.
Funnell, E., &Sheridan, J. (1992). Categories of knowledge? Unfamiliar aspects of living and nonliving things.Cognitive Neuropsychology,9, 135–153.
Humphreys, G. W., &Riddoch, M. J. (1987). On telling your fruit from your vegetable: A consideration of category-specific deficits after brain damage.Trends in Neurosciences,10, 145–148.
Humphreys, G. W., Riddoch, M. J., &Quinlan, P. T. (1988). Cascade processes in picture identification.Cognitive Neuropsychology,5, 67–103.
Jolicoeur, P., Gluck, M., &Kosslyn, S. (1984). Picture and names: Making the connection.Cognitive Psychology,16, 243–275.
Kiefer, M., Weisbrod, M., Kern, I., Maier, S., &Spitzer, M. (1998). Right hemisphere activation during indirect semantic priming: Evidence from event-related potentials.Brain & Language,64, 377–408.
Kounios, J., &Holcomb, P. J. (1994). Concreteness effects in semantic processing: ERP evidence supporting dual coding theory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,20, 804–823.
Kurbat, M. A. (1997). Can the recognition of living things really be selectively impaired?Neuropsychologia,35, 813–827.
Kutas, M., &Hillyard, S. A. (1980). Reading senseless sentences: Brain potentials reflect semantic incongruity.Science,207, 203–205.
Kutas, M., &Hillyard, S. A. (1983). Event-related potentials to grammatical errors and semantic anomalies.Memory & Cognition,11, 539–550.
Kutas, M., &Van Petten, C. K. (1994). Psycholinguistics electrified. In M. A. Gernsbacher (Ed.),Handbook of psycholinguistics (pp. 83–143). New York: Academic Press.
Lloyd-Jones, T. J., &Humphreys, G. W. (1997a). Categorizing chairs and naming pears: Category differences in object processing as a function of task and priming.Memory & Cognition,25, 606–624.
Lloyd-Jones, T. J., &Humphreys, G. W. (1997b). Perceptual differentiation as a source of category effects in object processing: Evidence from naming and object decision.Memory & Cognition,25, 18–35.
Mangun, G. R., &Hillyard, S. A. (1991). Modulation of sensoryevoked brain potentials provide evidence for changes in perceptual processing during visual-spatial priming.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,17, 1057–1074.
Martin, A., Wiggs, C. L., Ungerleider, L. G., &Haxby, J. V. (1996). Neural correlates of category-specific knowledge.Nature,379, 649–652.
Nunez, P. L. (1981).Electrical fields of the brain: The neurophysics of EEG. New York: Oxford University Press.
Oldfield, R. (1971). The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh Inventory.Neuropsychologia,9, 97–113.
Parkin, A. J., &Stewart, F. (1993). Category-specific impairments? No. A critique of Sartori et al.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,46A, 505–509.
Potter, M. C., &Faulconer, B. A. (1975). Time to understand pictures and words.Nature,253, 437–438.
Price, C. J., &Humphreys, G. W. (1989). The effects of surface detail on object categorization and naming.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,41A, 797–828.
Pulvermüller, F. (1999). Words in the brain’s language.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,22, 253–336.
Pulvermüller, F., Preissl, H., Lutzenberger, W., &Birbaumer, N. (1996). Brain rhythms of language: Nouns vs. verbs.European Journal of Neuroscience,8, 937–941.
Rugg, M. D., &Coles, M. G. H. (Eds.) (1995).Electrophysiology of mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ruoff, A. (1990).Häufigkeitswörterbuch gesprochener Sprache (2nd ed.). Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Sacchett, C., &Humphreys, G. W. (1992). Calling a squirrel a squirrel but a canoe a wigwam: A category-specific deficit for artefactual objects and body parts.Cognitive Neuropsychology,9, 73–86.
Sheridan, J., &Humphreys, G. W. (1993). A verbal-semantic categoryspecific recognition impairment.Cognitive Neuropsychology,10, 143–184.
Snodgrass, J. G., &Vanderwart, M. (1980). Standardized set of 260 pictures: Norms of name agreement, usage agreement, familiarity and visual complexity.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory,6, 174–215.
Snyder, A. Z., Abdullaev, Y. G., Posner, M. I., &Raichle, M. E. (1995). Scalp electrical potentials reflect regional blood flow responses during processing of written words.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,92, 1689–1693.
Spitzer, M. (1998).The mind within the net: Models of learning, thinking and acting. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press..
Spitzer, M., Kwong, K. K., Kennedy, W., Rosen, B. R., &Belliveau, J. W. (1995). Category-specific brain activation in fMRI during picture naming.NeuroReport,6, 2109–2112.
Tanaka, J. W., Luu, P., Weisbrod, M., &Kiefer, M. (1999). Tracking the time course of object categorization using event-related potentials.NeuroReport,10, 829–835.
Tanaka, J. W., &Presnell, L. M. (1999). Color diagnosticity and object recognition.Perception & Psychophysics,61, 1140–1153.
Thompson-Schill, S. L., Aguirre, G. K., D’Esposito, M. D., &Farah, M. J. (1999). A neural basis for category and modality specificity of semantic knowledge.Neuropsychologia,37, 671–676.
Thorpe, S., Fize, D., &Marlot, C. (1996). Speed of processing in the human visual system.Nature,381, 520–521.
Tranel, D., Damasio, H., &Damasio, A. R. (1997). A neural basis for the retrieval of conceptual knowledge.Neuropsychologia,35, 1319–1327.
Tranel, D., Logan, C. G., Frank, R. J., &Damasio, A. R. (1997). Explaining category-related effects in the retrieval of conceptual and lexical knowledge for concrete entities: Operationalization and analysis of factors.Neuropsychologia,35, 1329–1339.
Tucker, D. M. (1993). Spatial sampling of head electrical fields: The geodesic sensor net.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,87, 154–163.
Vitkovitch, M., Humphreys, G. W., &Lloyd-Jones, T. J. (1993). On naming a giraffe a zebra: Picture naming errors across different object categories.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,19, 243–259.
Warrington, E. K., &McCarthy, R. (1987). Categories of knowledge.Brain,110, 1273–1296.
Warrington, E. K., &Shallice, T. (1984). Category specific semantic impairments.Brain,107, 829–854.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research greatly benefited from discussions with Manfred Spitzer, Klaus Fiedler, and Stanislas Dehaene.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kiefer, M. Perceptual and semantic sources of category-specific effects: Event-related potentials during picture and word categorization. Memory & Cognition 29, 100–116 (2001). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195745
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195745