The relationship between semantic access and introspective awareness

Xu Xu, Chunyan Kang, David Pascucci, Taomei Guo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

There have long been speculations about the relationship between consciousness and language. This study aimed to determine whether an individual's level of introspective awareness, based on self-report, relates to accessibility of their semantic system as evaluated by the N400. Thirty-five university students completed the study. All were right-handed, with normal or corrected-to-normal vision, without known neurological or psychological health issues. They first performed on a lexical decision task while their brain electrophysiological responses were recorded. Then, they provided assessment ratings about their levels of introspective awareness. Analysis revealed moderate to strong correlations (Pearson's rs = 0.49–0.62) between awareness self-ratings and ease of semantic access as indexed by the N400. Correlation between the self-report measure and the objective neurophysiological measure suggests that subjective assessment of awareness may deserve more credibility, which in addition to reflecting subjective perception and evaluation about one's own higher order mental functioning, may also interact with the neurophysiological processes contributive and subject to such awareness. Implications for future research on the role of semantic network in the mechanism of introspective awareness are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)47-56
Number of pages10
JournalBrain and cognition
Volume123
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

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