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Abstract:
The time course of lexical activation was investigated in two
event-related potential (ERP) experiments in which subjects were
performing a generalized phoneme monitoring task. Reaction time
(RT) to a target phoneme in medial or final position of trisyllabic
real word carriers were significantly faster than RTs to targets in
corresponding positions in pseudowords. Simultaneously recorded
ERPs showed that wave forms to real words with a target in the
final position were more negative between 200 and 450 ms suggesting
that lexical representations of the words were activated. ERPs to
pseudowords were more negative irrespective of target position
between 600 and 900 ms. A second experiment was conducted to find
out if differences exist between carrier items even when subjects
do not need to respond. The same stimuli as in the previous
experiment were used but the experimental GO trials were now NO-GO
trials. More negative wave forms to pseudowords were observed in a
time window from 900 to 1400 ms indicating that subjects were
sensitive to the carrier type but this only occured post
lexically.
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