The automatic visual simulation of words: A memory reactivated mask slows down conceptual access.

How do we represent the meaning of words? The present study assesses whether access to conceptual knowledge requires the reenactment of the sensory components of a concept. The reenactment-that is, simulation-was tested in a word categorisation task using an innovative masking paradigm. We hypothesised that a meaningless reactivated visual mask should interfere with the simulation of the visual dimension of concrete words.

Memory plays tricks on me: perceptual bias induced by memory reactivated size in Ebbinghaus illusion.

The relationship between perceptual and memory processing is at the core of cognition. Growing evidence suggests reciprocal influences between them so that memory features should lead to an actual perceptual bias. In the present study, we investigate the reciprocal influence of perceptual and memory processing by further adapting the Ebbinghaus illusion and tested it in a psychophysical design.

Perceptual processing affects the reactivation of a sensory dimension during a categorization task.

According to grounded theories of cognition, knowledge is grounded in its sensory-motor features. Therefore, perceptual and conceptual processing should be based on the same distributed system so that conceptual and perceptual processes should interact. The present study assesses whether gustatory stimulation (participants tasted a sweet or a nonsweet yoghurt) could influence performance on a categorization task that involves the reactivation of the same sensory dimension.

"The mask who wasn't there": visual masking effect with the perceptual absence of the mask.

Does a visual mask need to be perceptually present to disrupt processing? In the present research, we proposed to explore the link between perceptual and memory mechanisms by demonstrating that a typical sensory phenomenon (visual masking) can be replicated at a memory level. Experiment 1 highlighted an interference effect of a visual mask on the categorization of auditory targets and confirmed the multimodal nature of knowledge. In Experiment 2, we proposed to reactivate this mask in a categorization task on visual targets.

Demonstration of an ebbinghaus illusion at a memory level: manipulation of the memory size and not the perceptual size.

Based on recent behavioral and neuroimaging data suggesting that memory and perception are partially based on the same sensorimotor system, the theoretical aim of the present study was to show that it is difficult to dissociate memory mechanisms from perceptual mechanisms other than on the basis of the presence (perceptual processing) or absence (memory processing) of the characteristics of the objects involved in the processing. In line with this assumption, two experiments using an adaptation of the Ebbinghaus illusion paradigm revealed similar effects irrespective of whether the size difference between the inner circles and the surrounding circles was manipulated perceptually (the size difference was perceptually present, Experiment 1) or merely reactivated in memory (the difference was perceptually absent, Experiment 2).

When seeing a dog activates the bark: multisensory generalization and distinctiveness effects.

The goal of the present study was to find evidence for a multisensory generalization effect (i.e., generalization from one sensory modality to another sensory modality).

Visual memory and visual perception: when memory improves visual search.

This study examined the relationship between memory and perception in order to identify the influence of a memory dimension in perceptual processing. Our aim was to determine whether the variation of typical size between items (i.e.

Memory and consciousness: trace distinctiveness in memory retrievals.

The aim of this article was to provide experimental evidence that classical dissociation between levels of consciousness associated with memory retrieval (i.e., implicit or explicit) can be explained in terms of task dependency and distinctiveness of traces.