Better I than He: Personal perspective modulates counterfactual processing

The cheese was green with… envy: An EEG study on minimal fictional descriptions

“…Indeed, many variables can arguably influence participants' processing of counterfactual and fictional information and, consequently, N400 amplitude. Interesting examples that warrant further research include proneness to fantasy (e.g., Bacon et al, 2013;Hartung et al, 2017), familiarity with literary genres or authors (Black et al, 2018;Mar et al, 2006), level of transportation (i.e., immersion or absorption) into the text (e.g., Black & Barnes, 2021;Johnson, 2013), switching or cognitive flexibility ability (e.g., Ferguson et al, 2022;Guajardo et al, 2016), mentalizing ability (e.g., Mar et al, 2006;Perner et al, 2004) and, more recently, personal perspective (Wang & Xu, 2022).…”

“…Language comprehension entails processing information that does not always align, or might even be inconsistent, with prior world knowledge. Two paradigmatic examples are the processing of counterfactual (e.g., Nieuwland, 2013;Wang & Xu, 2022) and fictional (e.g., Filik & Leuthold, 2013;Foy & Gerrig, 2014;Walsh et al, 2018) information. Counterfactual thinking involves the simulation of hypothetical events or alternative worlds that we know not to be true, frequently through "if-then" conditionals (e.g., ''If a lion could speak, we could understand him", Wittgenstein, 1958).…”