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Dissociable effects of prediction and integration during language comprehension: Evidence from a large-scale study using brain potentials

Nieuwland, Mante, Barr, Dale, Bartolozzi, Federica, Busch-Moreno, Simon, Donaldson, David, Ferguson, Heather J., Fu, Xiao, Heyselaar, Evelien, Huettig, Falk, Husband, Matthew, and others. (2020) Dissociable effects of prediction and integration during language comprehension: Evidence from a large-scale study using brain potentials. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375 (1791). Article Number 20180522. ISSN 0962-8452. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2018.0522) (KAR id:71673)

Abstract

Composing sentence meaning is easier for predictable words than for unpredictable words. Are predictable words genuinely predicted, or simply more plausible and therefore easier to integrate with sentence context? We addressed this persistent and fundamental question using data from a recent, large-scale (N = 334) replication study, by investigating the effects of word predictability and sentence plausibility on the N400, the brain's electrophysiological index of semantic processing. A spatiotemporally fine-grained mixed-effects multiple regression analysis revealed overlapping effects of predictability and plausibility on the N400, albeit with distinct spatiotemporal profiles. Our results challenge the view that the predictability-dependent N400 reflects the effects of either prediction or integration, and suggest that semantic facilitation of predictable words arises from a cascade of processes that activate and integrate word meaning with context into a sentence-level meaning.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0522
Additional information: AAM requested. No embargo. MW 21.1.19 Not yet published 07/02/19 JCC PC Requested the AAM - have preprint 11/06/2019
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: Heather Ferguson
Date Deposited: 17 Jan 2019 16:40 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 02:45 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/71673 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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