Event-related potential evidence on the influence of accentuation in spoken discourse comprehension in Chinese

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Xiaoqing LiYufang Yang

Abstract

In an event-related potential experiment with Chinese discourses as material, we investigated how and when accentuation influences spoken discourse comprehension in relation to the different information states of the critical words. These words could either provide new or old information. It was shown that variation of accentuation influenced the amplitude of the N400, with a larger amplitude for accented than for deaccented words. In addition, there was an interaction between accentuation and information state. The N400 amplitude difference between accented and deaccented new information was smaller than that between accented and deaccented old information. The results demonstrate that, during spoken discourse comprehension, listeners rapidly extract the semantic consequences of accentuation in relation to the previous discourse context. Moreover, our results show that the N400 amplitude can be larger for correct (new, accented words) than incorrect (new, deaccented words) information. This, we argue, proves that the N400 does not react to semantic anomaly per se, but rather to semantic integration load, which is higher for new information.

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Citations

Jan 31, 2012·Language and Cognitive Processes·Eun-Kyung Lee, Duane G Watson
Jul 9, 2009·Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience·Giosuè BaggioPeter Hagoort
Jan 8, 2013·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·Lin WangPeter Hagoort
Feb 3, 2016·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·Jinfeng DingYufang Yang
Jun 9, 2009·Brain Research·Lin WangYufang Yang
Sep 26, 2013·Neuropsychologia·Lin Wang, Mingyuan Chu
Jan 21, 2021·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·David Hernández-GutiérrezManuel Martín-Loeches
Jun 8, 2021·Biological Psychology·Yun-Hong WangJun-Long Luo
Oct 2, 2021·Attention, Perception & Psychophysics·Charles CliftonJason Bishop

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