University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, United Kingdom.
Bangor University, Gwynedd, LL57 2AS, United Kingdom.
Sci Rep. 2018 May 8;8(1):7190. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-25441-5.
Intuitively, deriving meaning from an abstract image is a uniquely human, idiosyncratic experience. Here we show that, despite having no universally recognised lexical association, abstract images spontaneously elicit specific concepts conveyed by words, with a consistency akin to that of concrete images. We presented a group of naïve participants with abstract picture-word pairs construed as 'related' or 'unrelated' according to a preliminary norming procedure conducted with different participants. Surprisingly, the naïve participants with no prior exposure to the abstract images or any hints regarding their possible meaning, displayed a reaction time priming effect for 'related' versus 'unrelated' picture-word pairs. Critically, this behavioural priming effect, and an associated decrease in N400 mean amplitude indexing semantic priming, both correlated significantly with the degree of relatedness established in the preliminary norming procedure. Given that ratings and electrophysiological measures were obtained in different groups of individuals, our results show that abstract images evoke consistent meaning across observers, as has been shown in the case of music.
直观地说，从抽象图像中理解意义是一种独特的、因人而异的体验。在这里，我们表明，尽管抽象图像没有普遍公认的词汇关联，但它们会自发地引发具体词汇所传达的特定概念，其一致性类似于具体图像。我们向一组天真的参与者展示了抽象的图片-单词对，这些对根据与不同参与者进行的初步规范程序被构造成“相关”或“不相关”。令人惊讶的是，这些天真的参与者之前没有接触过这些抽象图像，也没有任何关于它们可能含义的提示，但他们对“相关”和“不相关”的图片-单词对表现出了反应时间启动效应。关键的是，这种行为启动效应，以及与语义启动相关的 N400 平均振幅的下降，都与初步规范程序中建立的相关性显著相关。鉴于评分和电生理测量是在不同组的个体中获得的，我们的结果表明，抽象图像在不同的观察者中唤起了一致的意义，就像音乐一样。
