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

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 spatio-temporally fine-grained mixed-effect multiple regression analysis revealed overlapping effects of predictability and plausibility on the N400, albeit with distinct spatio-temporal 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. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Towards mechanistic models of meaning composition’.

Meaning composition in minimal phrasal contexts: distinct ERP effects of intensionality and denotation

“…word or gesture) into a preceding semantic context (Calloway & Perfetti, 2017;Hagoort et al, 2004;Lau et al, 2016), or retrieval of an item from long-term memory (Brouwer et al, 2017;Delogu et al, 2019;Federmeier, 2007). A hybrid account, where the N400 indexes a sequence of processes, including retrieval and integration, has also been proposed (Baggio, 2018;Baggio & Hagoort, 2011;Nieuwland et al, 2020 provides supporting evidence).…”

Gesture’s body orientation modulates the N400 during semantic integration of gesture and visual sentence

“…Despite the prediction vs. integration debate (Bornkessel-Schlesewsky & Schlesewsky, 2019; Kutas & Federmeier, 2011;Lau et al, 2008;Nieuwland et al, 2019), it becomes clearer that the role of social information, especially how it interacts with semantic prediction during sentence processing, will need to be addressed by the current language processing models: Across the reported N400 studies with social manipulations, it is apparent that top-down social aspects are the only resources that has led to the reported N400 modulations, and are therefore an important component during linguistic prediction.…”

Gesture's body orientation modulates the N400 for visual sentences primed by gestures

“…Of note, despite consistent reports (see Özyürek, 2014 for review), it remains an open question whether these N400 effects reflect the cost of semantically integrating gesture and language, or the differential level of semantic prediction from gesture to language and vice versa, or a combination of both processes. In fact, in language processing, although the N400 has been classically considered as a semantic integration index (Kutas & Hillyard, 1984), recent functional accounts of the component suggest either the prediction alternative (Bornkessel‐Schlesewsky & Schlesewsky, 2019; Kuperberg, Brothers, & Wlotko, 2020; Kutas & Federmeier, 2011; Lau, Phillips, & Poeppel, 2008), or a hybrid of both processes (Baggio & Hagoort, 2011; Nieuwland et al, 2020).…”