### Modality switch effects emerge early and extend late in conceptual processing: Evidence from ERPs This repository contains all the data from our study, including: conference paper and poster, stimulus norming, experiment set-up, behavioural pretest, main behavioural and electrophysiological data, and extensive R code for descriptives, plots, and statistical analysis. The main analysis files may be found in the folder path: ERPs / Analyses of ERPs averaged across trials. Specific documentation ('README') is also present in some folders. **Abstract** We tested whether conceptual processing is modality-specific by tracking the time course of the Conceptual Modality Switch effect. Forty-six participants verified the relation between property words and concept words. The conceptual modality of consecutive trials was manipulated in order to produce an Auditory-to-visual switch condition, a Haptic-to-visual switch condition, and a Visual-to-visual, no-switch condition. Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were time-locked to the onset of the first word (property) in the target trials so as to measure the effect online and to avoid a within-trial confound. A switch effect was found, characterized by more negative ERP amplitudes for modality switches than no-switches. It proved significant in four typical time windows from 160 to 750 milliseconds post word onset, with greater strength in the Slow group, in posterior brain regions, and in the N400 window. The earliest switch effect was located in the language brain region, whereas later it was more prominent in the visual region. In the N400 and Late Positive windows, the Quick group presented the effect especially in the language region, whereas the Slow had it rather in the visual region. These results suggest that contextual factors such as time resources modulate the engagement of linguistic and embodied systems in conceptual processing. [Bernabeu, P., Willems, R. M., & Louwerse, M. M. (2017). Modality switch effects emerge early and increase throughout conceptual processing: Evidence from ERPs. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. J. Davelaar (Eds.), *Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society* (pp. 1629-1634). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/a5pcz][1] See also further analyses available here. The modality exclusivity norms used for the stimuli are attached to this project as a linked component. Further links: - [Data and R code to be edited and run in RStudio](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/pablobernabeu/Modality-switch-effects-emerge-early-and-increase-throughout-conceptual-processing/master?urlpath=rstudio) - [ERP waveforms within any sections of the data](https://pablobernabeu.shinyapps.io/ERP-waveform-visualization_CMS-experiment/). - [Dashboard visualising the modality norms used in the modality switch experiment](https://pablobernabeu.shinyapps.io/dutch-modality-exclusivity-norms/). References Collins, J., Pecher, D., Zeelenberg, R., & Coulson, S. (2011). Modality switching in a property verification task: an ERP study of what happens when candles flicker after high heels click. *Frontiers in Psychology, 2*. Hald, L. A., Marshall, J.-A., Janssen, D. P., & Garnham, A. (2011). Switching modalities in a sentence verification task: ERP evidence for embodied language processing. *Frontiers in Psychology, 2*. Hauk, O. (2016). Only time will tell—Why temporal information is essential for our neuroscientific understanding of semantics. *Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23*. Louwerse, M., & Connell, L. (2011). A taste of words: linguistic context and perceptual simulation predict the modality of words. *Cognitive Science, 35*, 2, 381-98. Mahon, B.Z., & Hickok, G. (2016). Arguments about the nature of concepts: Symbols, embodiment, and beyond. *Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23*, 941-958. [1]: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/a5pcz