LOC - Levels of Congruity

This EEG study uses short visual narratives to investigate how prediction mechanisms at different levels of the visual hierarchy influence memory and neural processing during encoding and retrieval. Building on theories of predictive processing, the experiment examines whether violations of high-level action schemas and violations of low-level perceptual regularities lead to similar or distinct consequences for memory retrieval and EEG activity. The study consists of an encoding and a retrieval phase. During the encoding phase, participants view five-panel comic strips, in which two characters are engaged in a simple action. In each comic strip, the first four panels set up both a predictable action schema (i.e., one character handing or throwing an object to another) and a predictable pattern of the color saturation changes of the images. Critically, the fifth panel is manipulated along two independent experimental manipulations. The action outcome is either (1) congruent, i.e., a person receives the intended object or (2) incongruent, i.e., the action is interrupted, e.g., by the appearance of a third character. Simultaneously, the established color saturation progression is either (1) continued or (2) violated. The fully-crossed design results in four possible ending types. After each comic strip, participants answer one of two questions in randomized order (1. Has the object reached its intended recipient? 2. Was the last panel colorized?) to evaluate if participants understand and attend to the visual narratives. During the retrieval phase, memory for the presented comic strips will be measured with three tasks that probe different mnemonic components (more below). EEG is recorded throughout the whole procedure to capture prediction- and prediction error-related neural signals. The findings of this study will help to refine predictive processing models of memory by elucidating how violations at different levels of the visual hierarchy shape encoding and later retrieval. Event-related potential analysis and multivariate techniques will provide insights into whether schematic and perceptual (in)congruence are represented by common or distinct neural representations.