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Abstract:
Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to
investigate visual imagery and conscious recollection. Results were
consistent with a critical role for visual imagery in mediating
recognition judgments on spoken words in our study. Words were
presented at study in either a letter-detection encoding task, a
semantic encoding task using visual imagery, or a semantic encoding
task without visual imagery. Words were presented again at test
intermixed with unstudied words and non-words. Subjects performed a
lexical decision test and a recognition test for each item.
Priming, as measured by lexical decision response time, did not
differ as a function of study task. Recognition accuracy was higher
for words from the two semantic encoding tasks. ERPs recorded at
the time of the lexical decisions differed as a function of study
task. This ERP difference was maximal at occipital sites at a
latency of 700 Ü 800 ms after word onset. Parallel effects
were seen in study-phase ERPs. We suggest that both of these
effects reflect the generation of visual images in response to
spoken words, both at study and at test.
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