The influence of temporal information on online processing of counterfactual conditional sentences: Evidence from ERPs on temporal indicators

Liao, Qiaoyun; Kong, Lingjie; Jiang, Xiaoming

doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101143

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…First, lexical devices like temporal indicators, negation, and conjunctions modulate counterfactual processing. Linguistically, temporal indicators are considered most critical [7][8][9]. Although there is limited psychological evidence to investigate how temporal indicators impact the antecedent falsity of counterfactuals, previous research of real-world scenarios showed that the effect of temporal indicators is primarily through extending or shortening temporal shifts.…”

Section: The Antecedent Falsity Constraints Of Counterfactualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Readers must reorder events to restore the expected chronology, disrupting the original temporal and causal contingency. Relatedly, Liao, Q., et al [9] delved into the temporal sequences (chronological vs. reverse chronological) by manipulating antecedent temporal indicators (e.g., zuotian [yesterday] vs. mingtian [tomorrow]) in Chinese counterfactuals. Their findings revealed that reverse chronological conditions elicited a significantly larger N400 and P600 amplitude compared to chronological conditions.…”

Section: The Implied Causal Relation Between the Antecedent And The C...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies on the impact of contextual cues on online counterfactual processing chose the word in the consequent as the critical word [9,17,28,32]. The temporal indicator in the consequent serves as a critical word on which a temporal dependency can be formed across clauses.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The temporal indicator in the consequent serves as a critical word on which a temporal dependency can be formed across clauses. In this place, readers could access the temporal information and interpret it in the preceding context to build the relationship of the events in the antecedent and consequent of counterfactuals [9]. On the temporal indicator, the effects of temporal shifts and the likelihood of the occurrence of the antecedent can both be predicted from their impacts on the antecedent falsity constraint and on the implicit causality constraint.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each sentence was a Chinese counterfactual containing an antecedent and a consequent. The connective Yaobushi (if it had not been for) was selected as the counterfactual marker according to linguistics arguments [8,9,30,36], given that this word provided a strong counterfactual meaning based on behavioral judgments among related discourse markers [37]. We kept the consequents the same across different conditions, whereas differences existed only in the antecedent where the length of temporal shift and the likelihood of the occurrence of the antecedent were manipulated.…”

Section: Design and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Kong,

Jiang,

Huang

et al. 2023

Brain Sciences

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Counterfactual conditionals posit hypothetical scenarios in which antecedent events contradict reality. This study examined whether and how the processing difficulty of Chinese counterfactual conditionals (yaobushi, equivalent to if it had not been for in English) can be affected by the length of temporal shifts of the events across clauses and the likelihood of the antecedent occurrence. Participants read Chinese counterfactuals that contained either long (e.g., qunian-xianzai [last year-right now]) or short temporal shifts (e.g., zuotian-xianzai [yesterday-right now]) within highly likely (e.g., sign up for school activity) or less likely contexts (e.g., sign up for Arctic scientific research). ERP results revealed a significant N400 interaction between the temporal shift length and antecedent likelihood on the temporal indicators in the consequent and the sentence-ending verbs. Specifically, the less likely events elicited larger negativity than highly likely events with short temporal shifts on the temporal indicator. On the sentence-ending word, the long temporal shift elicited enlarged negativity than the short temporal shift when the antecedent was highly likely. These findings have two key implications regarding the interplay of implied causality and falsity constraints during counterfactual comprehension. First, salient falsity constraints can override effects of causal coherence on processing. Second, greater negativity for unlikely antecedents suggests that counterfactual markers concurrently activate factual and hypothetical representations.

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Section: The Antecedent Falsity Constraints Of Counterfactualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Implied Causal Relation Between the Antecedent And The C...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Design and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Kong,

Jiang,

Huang

et al. 2023

Brain Sciences

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Exploring Pragmatic Factors on the Logical Relationships of Conditional Reasoning: A Study of Counterfactual and Hypothetical Conditionals

Kong,

Sun,

Jiang

2024

Behavioral Sciences

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Previous theories have established the mental model activation of processing different types of conditionals, stating that counterfactual conditionals expressing events that contradict known facts (e.g., “If it had rained, then they would not go to the park.”) are considered to trigger two mental models: (1) a hypothetical but factually wrong model (e.g., “rain” and “did not go to the park”) and (2) a corresponding real-world model (e.g., “did not rain” and “went to the park”). This study aimed to investigate whether pragmatic factors differentially influence readers’ comprehension and distinction between counterfactual and hypothetical conditional sentences in Mandarin Chinese. Participants were required to read and judge the comprehensibility of Chinese hypothetical and counterfactual conditionals, which were different in temporal indicators (past vs. future temporal indicators) in the antecedent. Different polarities (with vs. without negators) and different moving directions (different directional verbs: lai2 [come] vs. qu4 [go]) in the consequent were also manipulated. Linear mixed-effects models (LMEM) revealed that hypothetical conditionals (with future temporal indicators) were more comprehensible than counterfactual conditionals (with past temporal indicators). The semantic similarities within the subordinate clause revealed future temporal indicators had higher lexical–semantic co-occurrence than past indicators, suggesting that temporal indicators impact comprehension partly through lexical semantics in the premise, and hypothetical conditionals are more easily processed. However, the semantic similarity analysis of the main and the subordinate clauses showed no effect of temporal indicators, suggesting that lexical–semantic co-occurrence across clauses may not substantially contribute to the distinction between hypothetical conditionals and counterfactual conditionals. In conclusion, this study offers insights into the comprehension of Chinese conditional sentences by shedding light on the pragmatic factors influencing the activation of different mental models.

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Perspective Chapter: How can Psycholinguistic Researches Respond To Societal Needs

Kong,

Jiang

2024

Psycholinguistics - New Advances and Real-World Applications

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This chapter examines prevailing trends in applied psycholinguistics centered on two pressing real-world imperatives—fostering equitable multilingual development and enabling clinical rehabilitation after language impairment. It first delineates how psycholinguistic approaches illuminate the intricate cognitive mechanisms underlying bilingual language representation, processing, and executive control during code-switching. Persistent challenges in validating assessments of multifaceted proficiency across languages are also discussed. Next, neural correlates of speech-language recovery are detailed, including insights from neuroimaging on how interventions harnessing both cognitive capacities and language networks can optimize outcomes. Additional coverage touches on augmenting naming accuracy in anomia through working memory training protocols. Ultimately, priorities in applied psycholinguistic research are rapidly transitioning from purely theoretical models toward substantively advancing educational accessibility and communication disorder interventions via illuminating authentic dynamics of language usage across diverse cultural settings. However, substantial lacunas remain in accounting for individual variability, motivational influences, and societal forces shaping both multilingual attainment and rehabilitation efficacy. Progress necessitates interdisciplinary collaboration integrating psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives to construct cohesive solutions that equitably benefit all global communities.

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The influence of temporal information on online processing of counterfactual conditional sentences: Evidence from ERPs on temporal indicators

Cited by 3 publications

References 46 publications

Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Exploring Pragmatic Factors on the Logical Relationships of Conditional Reasoning: A Study of Counterfactual and Hypothetical Conditionals

Perspective Chapter: How can Psycholinguistic Researches Respond To Societal Needs

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