Many studies suggest that semantic clustering facilitates searching for and retrieving information encoded in long-term memory. Clinical findings show a decrease in some indices of semantic clustering, however, only few of them have undertaken a detailed analysis of the semantic clustering phenomenon in stroke patients. It is not entirely clear to what extent semantic clustering determines the performance of various verbal tasks in older adults with vascular brain damage. The current study aimed to examine: (a) the differences in word list retrieval and semantic fluency between healthy controls and older post-stroke adults, (b) the effects of clinical condition (healthy vs. older post-stroke adults) and the type of task (word list retrieval vs. verbal fluency) on the usage of semantic clustering while controlling for the number of produced or retrieved words, and (c) the mediating effect of semantic clustering on the relationships between clinical condition and verbal fluency performance or between clinical condition and performance in retrieval of the word list. We tested 46 healthy older adults and 38 stroke patients. Statistically significant effects of the clinical condition and the type of task on the semantic clustering were found even under the condition of controlling for the number of produced or retrieved words. We also found a significant mediating role of semantic clustering for the relationships between clinical condition and performance of both fluency and free recall tasks.

The spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) refers to the faster left-hand responses to smaller numbers and faster right-hand responses to larger numbers. Although easily replicable in Western cultures, the prevalence of the SNARC effect in other cultures has long been an issue. In the current study, we aimed to replicate the SNARC effect in a parity judgement task with Turkish participants (N = 66) whose reading habits are entirely left-to-right. The results revealed no SNARC effect. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first finding indicating the absence of regular SNARC effect among left-to-right readers in a classical parity judgement task. Based on these findings, we suggest that investigations of cultural influences on spatial-numerical associations should take a broader perspective rather than only focusing on reading habits.

People believe repeated statements more than new ones, a phenomenon called the repetitioninduced truth effect. It is chiefly explained with the subjective processing ease (i.e., fluency) for repeated as compared to new information. To date, the role of affective processes for the repetition- induced truth effect is rather unclear. Different mechanisms may play a role: Affect influences processing styles, it may directly inform judgments, and positive affect may be misattributed to fluency/familiarity. In the current study, we compared mechanisms and tested whether a positive, neutral, or negative picture presented before a statement would influence the repetition-induced truth effect. Experiment 1 followed a classical repetition-induced truth effect procedure with two sessions that were a week apart. In the second session, each statement was preceded by an affective picture. We replicated the repetition-induced truth effect, and we observed a statistically significant main effect of affect—statements were rated as truer after a positive rather than a negative or neutral picture, but the interaction between repetition and affect was not statistically significant. In Experiment 2, we aimed to clarify the mechanism behind this finding using only new statements preceded by affective pictures. No statistically significant main effect of affect emerged. We conclude that the results in Experiment 1 were due to the misattribution of positive affect to fluency/ familiarity, enhancing the perceived truth of the statements. In sum, our results suggest two factors that enhance truth judgments: repetition and positive affect, but the effects of affect depend on the exact paradigm used.