Basic level advantage during information retrieval: an ERP study

Categorization concept could be divided into three levels according to the degree of generalization: superordinate, basic and the subordinate levels. To investigate the neural mechanism of concept information retrieval from the different levels, animals and vehicles were chosen as materials and a picture-word matching task was used in this study with the technique of ERP. The behavioral results showed basic concepts were retrieved most quickly and much faster than retrieving those concepts in superordinate and subordinate levels. The ERP results showed that there was an enhanced ERP signals in the early stage for the condition of superordinate level, including the time windows of N1 and 300−500 ms, suggesting a superordinate level advantage; but in the late stage (time window 500−600 ms), a basic-level advantage was observed. These results indicated the retrieving advantage of concept level appeared from superordinate back to basic.