Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence
The current study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures to examine effects of genre awareness on sentence processing and evaluation. We hypothesized that genre awareness modulates effects of genre-typical manipulations. We manipulated instructions between participants, e...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2017-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01887/full |
| _version_ | 1818552245317271552 |
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| author | Stefan Blohm Stefan Blohm Winfried Menninghaus Matthias Schlesewsky Matthias Schlesewsky |
| author_facet | Stefan Blohm Stefan Blohm Winfried Menninghaus Matthias Schlesewsky Matthias Schlesewsky |
| author_sort | Stefan Blohm |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The current study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures to examine effects of genre awareness on sentence processing and evaluation. We hypothesized that genre awareness modulates effects of genre-typical manipulations. We manipulated instructions between participants, either specifying a genre (poetry) or not (neutral). Sentences contained genre-typical variations of semantic congruency (congruent/incongruent) and morpho-phonological features (archaic/contemporary inflections). Offline ratings of meaningfulness (n = 64/group) showed higher average ratings for semantically incongruent sentences in the poetry vs. neutral condition. ERPs during sentence reading (n = 24/group; RSVP presentation at a fixed per-constituent rate; probe task) showed a left-lateralized N400-like effect for contemporary vs. archaic inflections. Semantic congruency elicited a bilateral posterior N400 effect for incongruent vs. congruent continuations followed by a centro-parietal positivity (P600). While N400 amplitudes were insensitive to the genre, the latency of the P600 was delayed by the poetry instruction. From these results, we conclude that during real-time sentence comprehension, readers are sensitive to subtle morphological manipulations and the implicit prosodic differences that accompany them. By contrast, genre awareness affects later stages of comprehension. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T09:10:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-57c493e735054f96a4772152a9dd46b3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T09:10:41Z |
| publishDate | 2017-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-57c493e735054f96a4772152a9dd46b32022-12-22T00:29:32ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782017-11-01810.3389/fpsyg.2017.01887271663Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological EvidenceStefan Blohm0Stefan Blohm1Winfried Menninghaus2Matthias Schlesewsky3Matthias Schlesewsky4Department of Language and Literature, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, GermanyDepartment of English and Linguistics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, GermanyDepartment of Language and Literature, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, GermanyDepartment of English and Linguistics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, GermanySchool of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, AustraliaThe current study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures to examine effects of genre awareness on sentence processing and evaluation. We hypothesized that genre awareness modulates effects of genre-typical manipulations. We manipulated instructions between participants, either specifying a genre (poetry) or not (neutral). Sentences contained genre-typical variations of semantic congruency (congruent/incongruent) and morpho-phonological features (archaic/contemporary inflections). Offline ratings of meaningfulness (n = 64/group) showed higher average ratings for semantically incongruent sentences in the poetry vs. neutral condition. ERPs during sentence reading (n = 24/group; RSVP presentation at a fixed per-constituent rate; probe task) showed a left-lateralized N400-like effect for contemporary vs. archaic inflections. Semantic congruency elicited a bilateral posterior N400 effect for incongruent vs. congruent continuations followed by a centro-parietal positivity (P600). While N400 amplitudes were insensitive to the genre, the latency of the P600 was delayed by the poetry instruction. From these results, we conclude that during real-time sentence comprehension, readers are sensitive to subtle morphological manipulations and the implicit prosodic differences that accompany them. By contrast, genre awareness affects later stages of comprehension.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01887/fullERPN400text typegenrepoetryimplicit prosody |
| spellingShingle | Stefan Blohm Stefan Blohm Winfried Menninghaus Matthias Schlesewsky Matthias Schlesewsky Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence Frontiers in Psychology ERP N400 text type genre poetry implicit prosody |
| title | Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence |
| title_full | Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence |
| title_fullStr | Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence |
| title_short | Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence |
| title_sort | sentence level effects of literary genre behavioral and electrophysiological evidence |
| topic | ERP N400 text type genre poetry implicit prosody |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01887/full |
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