Tracking the Dynamic Word-by-Word Incremental Reading through Multimeasures
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| Title: | Tracking the Dynamic Word-by-Word Incremental Reading through Multimeasures |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Lin Chen (ORCID |
| Source: | Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2025 51(8):1324-1346. |
| Availability: | American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 23 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Sponsoring Agency: | National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) |
| Contract Number: | 2118195 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Reading, Word Recognition, English, Native Language |
| Geographic Terms: | Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) |
| DOI: | 10.1037/xlm0001438 |
| ISSN: | 0278-7393 1939-1285 |
| Abstract: | Reading relies on the incremental processes that occur across all words in a passage to build a global comprehension of the text. Factorial experimental designs are not well-suited to examine these incremental processes, which are influenced by multilevel factors in an overlapping manner. Exemplifying an alternative approach, we combined event-related potentials, probabilistic language models, authentic texts, and statistical methods to examine the time course of multilevel linguistic influences on the incremental processes which occur during reading each word. We found that indicators of the initial stages of word identification (N170 and P200) are sensitive to context-independent statistical information of a word, for example, word frequency. The later stages of word processing, involving processes related to meaning retrieval and integration (N400), heavily rely on the word's context-dependent information measured by word surprisal. Syntactic processing, reflected by a word's syntactic surprisal and the number of phrase structures it closes, was presented across multiple phases (an early negativity, N400, and a late positivity). Additionally, the effects of position factors at both the word and sentence levels emerged across multiple time windows (including N170, P200, and N400), suggesting their distinct influence beyond linguistic factors. These findings provide a theoretically coherent picture of incremental reading, partly convergent with conclusions from factorial studies but with novel results concerning the time courses and interactions of processing components. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Notes: | https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/EXKAN |
| Entry Date: | 2026 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1508694 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | Reading relies on the incremental processes that occur across all words in a passage to build a global comprehension of the text. Factorial experimental designs are not well-suited to examine these incremental processes, which are influenced by multilevel factors in an overlapping manner. Exemplifying an alternative approach, we combined event-related potentials, probabilistic language models, authentic texts, and statistical methods to examine the time course of multilevel linguistic influences on the incremental processes which occur during reading each word. We found that indicators of the initial stages of word identification (N170 and P200) are sensitive to context-independent statistical information of a word, for example, word frequency. The later stages of word processing, involving processes related to meaning retrieval and integration (N400), heavily rely on the word's context-dependent information measured by word surprisal. Syntactic processing, reflected by a word's syntactic surprisal and the number of phrase structures it closes, was presented across multiple phases (an early negativity, N400, and a late positivity). Additionally, the effects of position factors at both the word and sentence levels emerged across multiple time windows (including N170, P200, and N400), suggesting their distinct influence beyond linguistic factors. These findings provide a theoretically coherent picture of incremental reading, partly convergent with conclusions from factorial studies but with novel results concerning the time courses and interactions of processing components. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0278-7393 1939-1285 |
| DOI: | 10.1037/xlm0001438 |
