The costs of being certain: Brain potential evidence for linguistic preactivation in sentence processing.

Prediction in sentence comprehension is often investigated by measuring the amplitude of the N400 ERP component to words that are more or less predictable from their preceding context. The N400-linked to the activation of word-associated semantic information-is reduced for words that are predictable, indicating that preactivation can lead to facilitated processing. We addressed the question whether there is measurable neural activity related to the preactivation of linguistic information before input confirms or disconfirms this prediction. We therefore measured ERPs not only to moderately to highly predictable target words, but also to preceding adverbs. Based on two separate cloze pretests, we quantified the impact of the adverb upon the predictability of the subsequent target word. Using linear mixed-effects analyses, we could show that the N400 amplitude at the target word was inversely related to target cloze value, thus replicating the finding that prediction has a facilitative effect on semantic processing. Crucially, the N400 amplitude at the pretarget adverb was modulated by adverb impact: When adverbs increased the predictability of the following word, the N400 was more negative going. We argue that this effect is related to the preactivation of linguistic information. Our findings indicate that the specification of predictions can lead to additional processes before these predictions are confirmed or disconfirmed and that activation of word-associated information through prediction is highly comparable to activation through actual input.

Semantic prediction in language comprehension: evidence from brain potentials.

Do people predict specific word-forms during language comprehension? In an Event-Related Potential (ERP) study participants read German sentences with predictable (The goalkeeper claims that the slick ball was easy to CATCH.) and unpredictable (The kids boasted that the young horse was easy to SADDLE.) verbs. Verbs were either consistent with the expected word-form (catch/saddle) or inconsistent and therefore led to ungrammaticality (*catches/*saddles). ERPs within the N400 time-window were modulated by predictability but not by the surface-form of the verbs, suggesting that no exact word-forms were predicted. Based on our results we will argue that predictions included semantic rather than form-information. Furthermore, ungrammatical verbs led to a strong P600, probably due to task-saliency whereas correct unpredictable verbs elicited an anterior post-N400 positivity. Because the contexts were moderately constraining, this might reflect discourse revision processes rather than inhibition of a predicted word.

Incremental comprehension of spoken quantifier sentences: Evidence from brain potentials.

Do people incrementally incorporate the meaning of quantifier expressions to understand an unfolding sentence? Most previous studies concluded that quantifiers do not immediately influence how a sentence is understood based on the observation that online N400-effects differed from offline plausibility judgments. Those studies, however, used serial visual presentation (SVP), which involves unnatural reading. In the current ERP-experiment, we presented spoken positive and negative quantifier sentences ("Practically all/practically no postmen prefer delivering mail, when the weather is good/bad during the day"). Different from results obtained in a previously reported SVP-study (Nieuwland, 2016) sentence truth-value N400 effects occurred in positive and negative quantifier sentences alike, reflecting fully incremental quantifier comprehension. This suggests that the prosodic information available during spoken language comprehension supports the generation of online predictions for upcoming words and that, at least for quantifier sentences, comprehension of spoken language may proceed more incrementally than comprehension during SVP reading.

Marking the counterfactual: ERP evidence for pragmatic processing of German subjunctives.

Counterfactual conditionals are frequently used in language to express potentially valid reasoning from factually false suppositions. Counterfactuals provide two pieces of information: their literal meaning expresses a suppositional dependency between an antecedent (If the dice had been rigged…) and a consequent (… then the game would have been unfair). Their second, backgrounded meaning refers to the opposite state of affairs and suggests that, in fact, the dice were not rigged and the game was fair. Counterfactual antecedents are particularly intriguing because they set up a counterfactual world which is known to be false, but which is nevertheless kept to when evaluating the conditional's consequent. In the last years several event-related potential (ERP) studies have targeted the processing of counterfactual consequents, yet counterfactual antecedents have remained unstudied. We present an EEG/ERP investigation which employed German conditionals to compare subjunctive mood (which marks counterfactuality) with indicative mood at the critical point of mood disambiguation via auxiliary introduction in the conditional's antecedent. Conditional sentences were presented visually one word at a time. Participants completed an acceptability judgment and probe detection task which was not related to the critical manipulation of linguistic mood. ERPs at the point of mood disambiguation in the antecedent were compared between indicative and subjunctive. Our main finding is a transient negative deflection in frontal regions for subjunctive compared to indicative mood in a time-window of 450-600 ms. We discuss this novel finding in respect to working memory requirements for rule application and increased referential processing demands for the representation of counterfactuals' dual meaning. Our result suggests that the counterfactually implied dual meaning is processed without any delay at the earliest point where counterfactuality is marked by subjunctive mood.