Cognitive Processes in Reading Comprehension: An ERP study on the maintenance of global coherence in discourses

Reading comprehension is a dynamic process which is influenced by a range of text characteristics and individual characteristics (Van den Broek, 1994). An important text characteristic is coherence, a measure of the interconnectedness of information within a text, which can be assessed locally and globally. This study was intended to conceptually replicate previous research using event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the maintenance of global coherence. ERPs were computed for critical words in each story to compare the difference in mean amplitude of the N400 component across coherent and incoherent story conditions. The N400 is thought to be inversely related to the ease with which semantic processing is carried out (Nieuwland & Van Berkum, 2006). It was hypothesised that breaks in global coherence would produce an N400 effect relative to the coherent control condition. A repeated measures ANOVA was carried out to test whether the N400 amplitude, measured as mean amplitude...Show moreReading comprehension is a dynamic process which is influenced by a range of text characteristics and individual characteristics (Van den Broek, 1994). An important text characteristic is coherence, a measure of the interconnectedness of information within a text, which can be assessed locally and globally. This study was intended to conceptually replicate previous research using event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the maintenance of global coherence. ERPs were computed for critical words in each story to compare the difference in mean amplitude of the N400 component across coherent and incoherent story conditions. The N400 is thought to be inversely related to the ease with which semantic processing is carried out (Nieuwland & Van Berkum, 2006). It was hypothesised that breaks in global coherence would produce an N400 effect relative to the coherent control condition. A repeated measures ANOVA was carried out to test whether the N400 amplitude, measured as mean amplitude in the 300 – 500ms post critical word time window across 11 chosen scalp sites, was more strongly negative for critical words in the incoherent condition than for those in the coherent condition. Mean amplitude values for the N400 were more negative for critical words in the incoherent condition than those in the coherent condition across 7 out of 11 scalp sites, but the differences did not reach significance.Show less

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Cognitive Processes in Reading Comprehension: An ERP study on the maintenance of global coherence in discourses