Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, UMR 7291 & Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR 7290, CNRS / Aix-Marseille Université, 3, place Victor-Hugo, 13331, Marseille cedex 3, France.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2012 Oct;19(5):955-61. doi: 10.3758/s13423-012-0287-x.
Since the 19th century, it has been known that response latencies are longer for naming pictures than for reading words aloud. While several interpretations have been proposed, a common general assumption is that this difference stems from cognitive word-selection processes and not from articulatory processes. Here we show that, contrary to this widely accepted view, articulatory processes are also affected by the task performed. To demonstrate this, we used a procedure that to our knowledge had never been used in research on language processing: response-latency fractionating. Along with vocal onsets, we recorded the electromyographic (EMG) activity of facial muscles while participants named pictures or read words aloud. On the basis of these measures, we were able to fractionate the verbal response latencies into two types of time intervals: premotor times (from stimulus presentation to EMG onset), mostly reflecting cognitive processes, and motor times (from EMG onset to vocal onset), related to motor execution processes. We showed that premotor and motor times are both longer in picture naming than in reading, although than in reading, although articulation is already initiated in the latter measure. Future studies based on this new approach should bring valuable clues for a better understanding of the relation between the cognitive and motor processes involved in speech production.
自 19 世纪以来，人们已经知道命名图片的反应时比大声朗读单词的反应时长。虽然已经提出了几种解释，但一个普遍的共识是，这种差异源于认知选词过程，而不是发音过程。在这里，我们表明，与这种被广泛接受的观点相反，发音过程也受到所执行任务的影响。为了证明这一点，我们使用了一种在语言处理研究中从未使用过的程序：反应时分段。我们在参与者命名图片或大声朗读单词时，记录了面部肌肉的肌电图（EMG）活动，以及声音的起始时间。基于这些测量结果，我们能够将言语反应时分为两种类型的时间间隔：运动前时间（从刺激呈现到 EMG 起始），主要反映认知过程，以及运动时间（从 EMG 起始到声音起始），与运动执行过程相关。我们表明，在图片命名中，运动前时间和运动时间都比朗读时长，尽管在后者的测量中，发音已经开始。基于这种新方法的未来研究应该为更好地理解言语产生中涉及的认知和运动过程之间的关系提供有价值的线索。
