Concrete words, whose meanings are readily imagined, are better remembered than abstract words. However, the neural correlates of this effect are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effect of imageability on brain activity in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) processes underlying recognition memory. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) via depth electrodes from within the MTL in 14...

Word frequency, age of acquisition (AoA), and imageability were combined with spelling-sound consistency, and their effects on word naming were examined. Frequency and AoA interacted with consistency (Experiments 1 and 2). Imageability did not (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 replicated Experiment 2 of E. Strain, K. E. Patterson, and M. S. Seidenberg's (1995) study and obtained the same apparent ef...

Language requires both storage and composition. However, exactly what is retrieved from memory and what is assembled remains controversial, especially for inflected words. Here, "imageability effects" is introduced as a new diagnostic of storage and a complement to frequency effects. In 2 studies of past-tense morphology, more reliable imageability and frequency effects were found on irregulars...

An important issue in theories of bilingual autobiographical memory is whether linguistically encoded memories are represented in language-specific stores or in a common language-independent store. Previous research has found that autobiographical memory retrieval is facilitated when the language of the cue is the same as the language of encoding, consistent with language-specific memory stores...

Abstract The attribution of mental states ( MS ) to other species typically follows a scala naturae pattern. However, “simple” states, including emotions, sensing, and feelings are attributed wider range animals as compared the so-called “higher” cognitive abilities. We propose that such attributions based on perceptual quality i.e. imageability) representations related concepts. hypothesized h...

The aim of study #1 was to weigh the familiarity and imageability of children in the fifth to eighth grade age bracket against the corresponding values of adults. The aim of study #2 was to examine the effects of lexical properties on printed kanji word comprehension, reading aloud, and word auditory comprehension in fourth grade children. The lexical properties used in study #2 were familiarit...

The vast majority of brain-injured patients with semantic impairment have better comprehension of concrete than abstract words. In contrast, several patients with semantic dementia (SD), who show circumscribed atrophy of the anterior temporal lobes bilaterally, have been reported to show reverse imageability effects, that is, relative preservation of abstract knowledge. Although these reports l...

Inthis paper, wedescribeindetail theperformanceon avariety of tests of language processing of a patient (PS) who shows a strong effect of imageability in auditory repetition. Unlike deep dysphasic patients (e.g. Franklin, Howard, & Patterson, 1994, 1995; Valdois, Carbonnel, David, Rousset, & Pellat, 1995), who also show effects of imageability, PS does not make semantic errors in auditory repet...