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Abstract
Sentence comprehension depends on continuous prediction of upcoming words. However, when and how contextual information affects the bottom-up streams of visual word recognition is unknown. This study examined the effects of word frequency and contextual predictability (cloze probability of a target word embedded in the sentence) on N1, P200, and N400 components, which are related to various cognitive operations in early visual processing, perceptual decoding, and semantic processing. The data exhibited a significant interaction between predictability and frequency at the anterior N1 component. The predictability effect, in which the low predictability words elicited a more negative N1 than high predictability words, was only observed when reading a high frequency word. A significant predictability effect occurred during the P200 time window, in which the low predictability words elicited a less positive P200 than high predictability words. There is also a significant predictability effect on the N400 component; low predictability words elicited a greater N400 than high predictability words, although this effect did not interact with frequency. The temporal dynamics of the manner in which contextual information affects the visual word recognition is discussed. These findings support the interactive account, suggesting that contextual information facilitates visual-feature and orthographic processing in the early stage of visual word processing and semantic integration in the later stage.
Highlights
Studies have used various measures to demonstrate how the processing of a word can be influenced by its preceding context
The cloze probability and the word frequency effects of the twocharacter Chinese compound embedded in the middle of the sentences were measured in relation to a set of event-related potentials (ERPs) components to index various stages of lexical processing
The data revealed predictability effects on the anterior N1, P200, and N400 components, but demonstrated a differing modulation effect to word frequency and long-term repetition
Summary
Studies have used various measures to demonstrate how the processing of a word can be influenced by its preceding context. The effect of constraint on the response to expected exemplars begins in the N1 time window, with a reduced N1 to expected exemplars in high- as opposed to low-constraint sentences These results indicate that semantic context integration may occur at an early stage, and almost simultaneously with the processing of information regarding the form and lexical properties of a word. The contextual effect on early ERP components, such as N1 or P200, may not imply that access to lexico-semantic information occurs within the first stages of lexical access, but acts in an anticipatory or predictive manner for the early perceptual features analysis This is further supported by Solomyak and Marantz (2009), who examined the visual recognition of heteronyms to distinguish the abstract word-form process from actual lexical access in the brain. This allows researchers to determine the functional stage of word recognition in which the contextual information begins to interact with bottom-up processing of visually presented sentence completions
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