Graded expectations: Predictive processing and the adjustment of expectations during spoken language comprehension

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate the use of local and global context to incoming words during listening comprehension. Local context was manipulated by presenting a target noun (e.g., cake, veggies) that was preceded by a word that described a prototypical or atypical feature of the noun (e.g., sweet, healthy). Global context was manipulated by presenting the noun in a scenario that was consistent or inconsistent with the critical noun (e.g., a birthday party). ERPs were examined at the feature word and at the critical noun. An N400 effect was found at the feature word reflecting the effect of compatibility with the global context. Global predictability and local feature-word consistency interacted at the critical noun: a larger N200 was found to nouns that mismatched predictions when the context was maximally constraining, relative to nouns in the other conditions. A graded N400 response was observed at the critical noun, modulated by global predictability and feature consistency. Finally, PNP effects of context-updating were observed to nouns supported by one contextual cue (global/local), but unsupported by the other. These results indicate (1) incoming words that are compatible with context-based expectations receive a processing benefit; (2) when the context is sufficiently constraining, specific lexical items may be activated; and (3) listeners dynamically adjust their expectations when input is inconsistent with their predictions, provided that the inconsistency has some level of support from either global or local context.

Hemispheric differences and similarities in comprehending more and less predictable sentences

“…Accompanying this effect, DeLong et al (2011), as well as DeLong et al, (2012, 2014a), reported a late (post-N400) sustained frontal, somewhat left ERP positivity to low cloze probability but plausible continuations of highly constraining sentence contexts (e.g., airplane in the previous example). This positivity also has been reported by others, under similar experimental circumstances, to unexpected but acceptable continuations in sentences or discourses (Federmeier et al, 2007; Thornhill and Van Petten, 2012; Moreno et al, 2002; Coulson and Van Petten, 2007; Kutas, 1993; Brothers et al, 2015; Boudewyn et al, 2015). …”

“…Some of this work has relied on the N400 ERP component, a negative-going waveform peaking around 400 ms post-stimulus onset, which is part of the brain’s normal response to semantic processing of a meaningful stimulus in context. N400 studies have uncovered evidence for semantic prediction at various levels, e.g., for lexical, categorically-related, event-related, and conceptually similar information (e.g., DeLong et al, 2005; Thornhill and Van Petten, 2012; Federmeier and Kutas, 1999a; Metusalem et al, 2012; Boudewyn et al, 2015). In conjunction with these findings, there is also growing support for the idea that there may be processing consequences, when predictions are not validated by the input.…”

“…This may be due in part to the fact that unlike the widely reported N400s in such studies, the anterior PNP occurs rather inconsistently (Van Petten and Luka, 2006 provide as comprehensive a catalog as any, of such PNP findings). What is known, is that important eliciting conditions for the anterior PNP seem to be that they occur (1) to plausible continuations, or as Boudewyn et al (2015) suggest, under circumstances in which at least some contextual support is available to trigger updating, and (2) in moderately to highly constraining sentence contexts. Thornhill and Van Petten (2012) also found that the anterior PNP can be elicited by unexpected words both related and unrelated to the expected continuation.…”

Comprehension in proficient readers: The nature of individual variation

“…This knowledge may be important in processing incoming words even if the words themselves are not predictable in context. Boudewyn, Long, and Swaab (2015) examined the processing of nouns (e.g., cake) that were plausible in context, but had low cloze probabilities in their specific contexts. They found that semantic features of the word that were relevant to the context (e.g., sweet) were activated before the word was received, even when that word could not be predicted.…”

Tell me sweet little lies: An event-related potentials study on the processing of social lies

“…Thus, statements that clash with world knowledge stored in long-term memory elicit an N400 response. However, the most recent views on what the N400 indexes highlight its role as a sign that online predictions are being made about upcoming words in discourse (Boudewyn, Long, & Swaab, 2015;Otten, Nieuwland, & Van Berkum, 2007;Van Berkum, Brown, Zwitserlood, Kooijman, & Hagoort, 2005;Wicha, Moreno, & Kutas, 2004). Thereafter, the N400 is not as sensitive to truthvalue computations as it is an online predictor for upcoming information based on world knowledge (Nieuwland, 2015;Nieuwland & Kuperberg, 2008).…”