On the predictability of event boundaries in discourse: An ERP investigation.

ABSTRACT: When reading a text describing an everyday activity, comprehenders build a model of the situation described that includes prior knowledge of the entities, locations, and sequences of actions that typically occur within the event. Previous work has demonstrated that such knowledge guides the processing of incoming information by making event boundaries more or less expected. In the present ERP study, we investigated whether comprehenders' expectations about event boundaries are influenced by how elaborately common events are described in the context. Participants read short stories in which a common activity (e.g., washing the dishes) was described either in brief or in an elaborate manner. The final sentence contained a target word referring to a more predictable action marking a fine even

SUBMITTER: Delogu F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5809541 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature