The Effect of Distance Between Thematic and Taxonomic Relations on Categorization and Property Inferences: An ERP Study

Abstract

Abstract: Although studies have shown that relationship types have important influences on inductive reasoning, the neural mechanism of the thematic (e.g., panda vs. bamboo) and taxonomic relationship (e.g., panda vs. antelope) on inductive reasoning remains unclear. In this study, the ERP characteristics of the two relationship types and their distance in the categorization process and property reasoning process were investigated by presenting separately the categories and property of conclusion in the property inductive reasoning tasks with the event-related potential (ERP) technology. The results suggested that far distance elicited greater N400 (370 ~ 500 ms) and LNC (570 ~ 700 ms) compared to the near distance for the categorization stage，regardless of the thematic and taxonomic relationship. The former indicated that N400 was closely related to semantic integration; the latter showed that LNC was related to semantic category information violation and hypothesis formation. In the properties stage, the thematic relationship elicited a larger N1 than the taxonomic relationship. Moreover, the near distance elicited a larger N1 than far distance, which reflected the perception and automatic processing of categorical attribute characteristics. The results support the view that there is a distance effect in semantic category-based properties induction and that the semantic relations are processed differently in the property inferences.

Key words: category-based properties induction, thematic relations, taxonomic relations, the effect of distance, ERP

摘要： 不同关系类型对归纳推理具有重要的影响，然而主题关系（如，熊猫vs.竹子）与类属关系（如，熊猫vs.羚羊）在归纳推理中的神经机制仍然不清楚。本研究采用事件相关电位（ERP）技术，通过分开呈现属性归纳推理任务中的结论类别和结论属性，探讨两种关系类型及其距离在分类过程和属性推理过程中的ERP特征。结果发现：（1）结论类别呈现阶段，N400（370～500 ms）与LNC（the late negative component）（570～700 ms）时间窗口上，无论是主题关系还是类属关系，远距离比近距离均诱发了更大的负波；前者表明N400与语义整合密切相关，后者说明LNC与语义类别信息违背和假设形成有关。（2）结论属性呈现阶段，主题关系比类属关系诱发了更大的N1；同时，近距离比远距离诱发了更大的N1，反映了类别属性特征的知觉和自动化加工。结果表明：语义类别属性归纳存在距离效应，并且语义关系在属性推理过程中具有不同的加工方式。

关键词: 类别属性归纳, 主题关系, 类属关系, 距离效应, ERP

CLC Number:

B842

LIU Fangfang, JIANG Yingjie. The Effect of Distance Between Thematic and Taxonomic Relations on Categorization and Property Inferences: An ERP Study[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2020, 18(1): 24-30.

刘芳芳, 姜英杰. 主题与类属关系的距离对分类和属性推理过程的影响：来自ERP的证据[J]. 心理与行为研究, 2020, 18(1): 24-30.

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