How context features modulate the involvement of the working memory system during discourse comprehension

Yang, Xiaohong; Zhang, Xiuping; Yang, Yufang; Lin, Nan

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.01.010

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Our result adds to the literature by indicating that prediction of upcoming words benefits more from sentence context than from discourse context. This finding is compatible with the findings in previous studies (Myers et al, 2000;Yang et al, 2015;Yang et al, 2018). While those studies did not directly investigate the cognitive process of prediction during language comprehension, they did show that readers need more cognitive effort to integrate long-distance information than shortdistance information in discourse context (Myers et al, 2000;Yang et al, 2015;Yang et al, 2018).…”

Section: Effect Of Contextsupporting

confidence: 91%

Prediction differs at sentence and discourse level: An event-related potential study

Chang

Yang

2020

Applied Psycholinguistics

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This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how predicting upcoming words differ when contextual information used to generate the prediction is from the immediately preceding sentence context versus an earlier discourse context. Four-sentence discourses were presented to participants, with the critical words in the last sentences, either predictable or unpredictable based on sentence- or discourse-level contextual information. At the sentence level, the crucial contextual information for prediction was provided by the last sentence, where the critical word was embedded (e.g., Xiaoyu came to the living room. She made a cup of lemon tea. Then she sat down in a chair. She opened a box/an album to look at the pictures.), and at the discourse level by the first sentence (e.g., Xiaoyu took out a box/an album. She made a cup of lemon tea. Then she sat down in a chair. She leisurely looked at the pictures.). Results showed reduced N400 for predictable words compared to unpredictable counterparts at sentence and discourse levels and also a post-N400 positivity effect of predictability at sentence level. This suggests that both sentence- and discourse-level semantic information help readers predict upcoming words, but supportive sentence context more than discourse context.

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Section: Effect Of Contextsupporting

confidence: 91%

Prediction differs at sentence and discourse level: An event-related potential study

Chang

Yang

2020

Applied Psycholinguistics

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“…the entire EEG experiment had been completed. The participants rated the coherence of each mini story on a 5-point scale, ranging from 'not coherent' to 'coherent' (for a similar approach, see Yang, Zhang, Yang, & Lin, 2018). The lists were exactly the same as the ones used in the EEG experiment (see 2.6 Experimental lists), which means that participants rated only one condition of each item.…”

Section: Coherence Rating Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociating activation and integration of discourse referents: Evidence from ERPs and oscillations

Coopmans

Nieuwland

2020

Cortex

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A key challenge in understanding stories and conversations is the comprehension of 'anaphora', words that refer back to previously mentioned words or concepts ('antecedents'). In psycholinguistic theories, anaphor comprehension involves the initial activation of the antecedent and its subsequent integration into the unfolding representation of the narrated event. A recent proposal suggests that these processes draw upon the brain's recognition memory and language networks, respectively, and may be dissociable in patterns of neural oscillatory synchronization (Nieuwland & Martin, 2017). We addressed this proposal in an electroencephalogram (EEG) study with pre-registered data acquisition and analyses, using event-related potentials and neural oscillations. Dutch participants read two-sentence mini stories containing proper names, which were repeated or new (ease of activation) and semantically coherent or incoherent with the preceding discourse (ease of integration). Repeated names elicited smaller N400 and Late Positive Component amplitude than new names, and also an increase in theta-band (4e7 Hz) synchronization, which was largest around 240e450 ms after name onset. Discourse-coherent names elicited an increase in gamma-band (60e80 Hz) synchronization compared to discourse-incoherent names. This effect was largest around 690e1000 ms after name onset and exploratory beamformer analysis suggested a left frontal source. We argue that the initial activation and subsequent discourse-level integration of referents can be dissociated with eventrelated EEG activity, and are associated with respectively theta-and gamma-band activity. These findings further establish the link between memory and language through neural oscillations.

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“…In order to establish that the 'coherent' and 'incoherent' conditions were indeed considered as such, we conducted a coherence rating test with an additional group of 20 native speakers of Dutch (19 females, average age: 24 years, age range: 18-30 years). In an online experiment, which was done after we had conducted the EEG experiment, these participants rated the coherence of each mini story on a 5-point scale, ranging from 'not coherent' to 'coherent' (for a similar approach, see Yang, Zhang, Yang, & Lin, 2018). The two sentences of each mini story were presented together.…”

Section: Coherence Rating Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociating activation and integration of discourse referents: evidence from ERPs and oscillations

Coopmans

Nieuwland

2019

Preprint

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A key challenge in understanding stories and conversations is the comprehension of 'anaphora', words that refer back to previously mentioned words or concepts ('antecedents').In psycholinguistic theories, anaphor comprehension involves the initial activation of the antecedent and its subsequent integration into the unfolding representation of the narrated event.A recent proposal suggests that these processes draw upon the brain's recognition memory and language networks, respectively, and may be dissociable in patterns of neural oscillatory synchronization (Nieuwland & Martin, 2017). We addressed this proposal in an electroencephalogram (EEG) study with pre-registered data acquisition and analyses, using event-related potentials (ERPs) and neural oscillations. Dutch participants read two-sentence mini stories containing proper names, which were repeated or new (ease of activation) and coherent or incoherent with the preceding discourse (ease of integration). Repeated names elicited lower N400 and Late Positive Component amplitude than new names, and also an increase in theta-band (4-7 Hz) synchronization, which was largest around 240-450 ms after name onset. Discourse-coherent proper names elicited an increase in gamma-band (60-80 Hz) synchronization compared to discourse-incoherent names. This effect was largest around 690-1000 ms after name onset and was localized to the left frontal cortex. We argue that the initial activation and subsequent discourse-level integration of referents can be dissociated with eventrelated EEG activity, and are associated with respectively theta-and gamma-band activity.These findings further establish the link between memory and language through neural oscillations.

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How context features modulate the involvement of the working memory system during discourse comprehension

Cited by 17 publications

References 76 publications

Prediction differs at sentence and discourse level: An event-related potential study

Prediction differs at sentence and discourse level: An event-related potential study

Dissociating activation and integration of discourse referents: Evidence from ERPs and oscillations

Dissociating activation and integration of discourse referents: evidence from ERPs and oscillations

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