ERP Evidence for an Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Masked Priming Tasks

Two masked priming experiments investigated the time-course of phonological and semantic processes implicated in visual word recognition as well as their possible interaction, using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Participants read target words which were phonologically related, semantically related, both phonologically and semantically related or unrelated to a masked prime word. In experiment 1, participants performed a phonological task (decide whether targets rhymed with a previously heard rhyme). The phonological relation elicited a frontal negativity whereas the semantic relation elicited a left anterior negativity, both followed by an N400 at centro-parietal sites. In experiment 2, participants performed a semantic task (decide whether targets belonged to a previously presented semantic category). In contrast to experiment 1, phonological and semantic relations elicited an N400 over frontal sites. Together, these results demonstrate that phonological and semantic processes interact during visual word recognition