Anomalies at the Borderline of Awareness: An ERP Study

Sanford, Anthony J.; Leuthold, Hartmut; Bohan, Jason; Sanford, Alison

doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21370

Cited by 96 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…In other words, we predict that N400 amplitude does not correlate with the overall plausibility of a sentence if priming by preceding words and context is taken into account. A fine example consistent with this prediction was presented in the previous paragraph (i.e., the example taken from Sanford et al, 2011). This contrasts with the integration view which attributes the N400 to compositional and integrative processes, and therefore predicts N400 amplitude to be highly sensitive to plausibility.…”

Section: Predictions and Future Workmentioning

confidence: 59%

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Getting real about Semantic Illusions: Rethinking the functional role of the P600 in language comprehension

2012

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In traditional theories of language comprehension, syntactic and semantic processing are inextricably linked. This assumption has been challenged by the 'Semantic Illusion Effect' found in studies using Event Related brain Potentials. Semantically anomalous sentences did not produce the expected increase in N400 amplitude but rather one in P600 amplitude. To explain these findings, complex models have been devised in which an independent semantic processing stream can arrive at a sentence interpretation that may differ from the interpretation prescribed by the syntactic structure of the sentence. We review five such multi-stream models and argue that they do not account for the full range of relevant results because they assume that the amplitude of the N400 indexes some form of semantic integration. Based on recent evidence we argue that N400 amplitude might reflect the retrieval of lexical information from memory. On this view, the absence of an N400-effect in Semantic Illusion sentences can be explained in terms of priming. Furthermore, we suggest that semantic integration, which has previously been linked to the N400 component, might be reflected in the P600 instead. When combined, these functional interpretations result in a single-stream account of language processing that can explain all of the Semantic Illusion data.

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Section: Predictions and Future Workmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…If participants do not detect the anomaly, no such P600-effect should be observed, because the representations for the critical and control sentences should be equally difficult to build. Sanford et al (2011) recently conducted an ERP investigation of the 'Moses Illusion'. They presented participants with fragments like:…”

Section: Semantic Illusions Revisitedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting real about Semantic Illusions: Rethinking the functional role of the P600 in language comprehension

2012

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“…The P600 effect elicited by semantic incongruity has also been repeatedly reported in previous studies (e.g., Kuperberg et al, 2007;Nieuwland & Van Berkum, 2005;Szewczyk & Schriefers, 2011). Such semantic violations involved verbargument violations (Kuperberg, 2007) and hard-to-detect semantic violations (Brouwer, Fitz, & Hoeks, 2012;Sanford, Leuthold, Bohan, & Sanford, 2011). Szewczyk and Schriefers (2011) interpreted the P600 effect as a reflection of general reanalysis or a well-formedness check of the sentence.…”

Section: Emotionality Modulation On Semantic Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dynamic influence of emotional words on sentence comprehension: An ERP study

Ding

Lin

Yang

2016

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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In the present study, we explored the influence of emotional words on the semantic integration of their following neutral nouns during sentence comprehension. We manipulated the emotionality of verbs and the semantic congruity of their following (neutral) object nouns in sentences. Eventrelated potentials were recorded to the verbs, which were either negative or neutral, and to the object nouns, which were either semantically congruent or incongruent relative to the preceding contexts. We found an N400 and a P600 effect in response to the semantic congruity of the nouns when they followed the neutral verbs. However, the P600 (but not the N400) semantic congruity effect may have been attenuated when the nouns followed the negative verbs. Meanwhile, the negative verbs elicited a larger P2 and N400 than did the neutral verbs. The results indicate that the attention captured by emotional words impaired reanalysis of the following incongruent information, demonstrating a dynamic influence of emotional words on the semantic processing of following information during sentence comprehension.

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“…In particular, semantically anomalous words that are considered hard to detect because of their strong superficial relatedness to the described scenario (e.g., "Child abuse cases are being reported much more frequently these days. In a recent trial, a 10-year sentence was given to the victim") elicit a reduced N400 effect but enhanced subsequent positive deflections (Sanford, Leuthold, Bohan, & Sanford, 2011;Nieuwland & Van Berkum, 2005). Such effects could indicate that critical words that are not immediately detected as being anomalous nevertheless elicit a second, more elaborate interpretive process upon detection (see also Van Herten, Chwilla, & Kolk, 2006; for a review, see Brouwer, Fitz, & Hoeks, 2012).…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Truth Before and After: Brain Potentials Reveal Automatic Activation of Event Knowledge during Sentence Comprehension

Nieuwland

2015

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Abstract■ How does knowledge of real-world events shape our understanding of incoming language? Do temporal terms like "before" and "after" impact the online recruitment of real-world event knowledge? These questions were addressed in two ERP experiments, wherein participants read sentences that started with "before" or "after" and contained a critical word that rendered each sentence true or false (e.g., "Before/After the global economic crisis, securing a mortgage was easy/harder"). The critical words were matched on predictability, rated truth value, and semantic relatedness to the words in the sentence. Regardless of whether participants explicitly verified the sentences or not, false-aftersentences elicited larger N400s than true-after-sentences, consistent with the well-established finding that semantic retrieval of concepts is facilitated when they are consistent with real-world knowledge. However, although the truth judgments did not differ between before-and after-sentences, no such sentence N400 truth value effect occurred in before-sentences, whereas falsebefore-sentences elicited an enhanced subsequent positive ERPs. The temporal term "before" itself elicited more negative ERPs at central electrode channels than "after." These patterns of results show that, irrespective of ultimate sentence truth value judgments, semantic retrieval of concepts is momentarily facilitated when they are consistent with the known event outcome compared to when they are not. However, this inappropriate facilitation incurs later processing costs as reflected in the subsequent positive ERP deflections. The results suggest that automatic activation of event knowledge can impede the incremental semantic processes required to establish sentence truth value. ■

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Anomalies at the Borderline of Awareness: An ERP Study

Cited by 96 publications

References 54 publications

Getting real about Semantic Illusions: Rethinking the functional role of the P600 in language comprehension

Getting real about Semantic Illusions: Rethinking the functional role of the P600 in language comprehension

The dynamic influence of emotional words on sentence comprehension: An ERP study

The Truth Before and After: Brain Potentials Reveal Automatic Activation of Event Knowledge during Sentence Comprehension

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