An ERP Study on The Perceptual Interference Effect

GAO Wen-Huan; YU Quan-Hong

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2012, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (2) : 270-275.

GAO WENHUAN¹, ²

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Abstract

The perceptual interference effect is the finding that prior exposures to a more degraded stimulus compromise the identification on a less degraded version of the stimulus later. Up to now, there are two influential theories which explain this effect: competition explanations (Bruner & Potter, 1964; Luo & Snodgrass, 1994; Snodgrass & Hirshman, 1991) and mismatch explanations (Wang & Reinitz, 2001). The prominent P2, P3，N400 and LPC were elicited under the experimental conditions. The amplitude of P2, P3 and LPC were significantly larger in the standard condition than in the incremental condition. The incremental condition elicited a more negative ERP deflection than did the standard condition in the 350～500 ms (N400) time window around the midline centroparietal recording sites. In addition, we found no significant differences in the 350～500 ms (N400) time window among the consecutive blurredness Levels during the incremental condition.The results indicates that perceptual interference occurs at early stages of the incremental condition and it yields an enduring inhibition, during which, the inhibition does not seem to change in magnitude. Therefore, the present results are consistent with the mismatch explanation. In addition, the study results are also consistent with the view that the N400 is sensitive to a lexical process.

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the perceptual interference effect / mismatch explanations / N400 / lexical process / ERPs

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GAO WENHUAN. An ERP Study on The Perceptual Interference Effect[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2012, 35(2): 270-275

References

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