Katz, A.
The University of Western Ontario
Comprehension involves a range of processes, each of which involves the disambiguation of multiple possibilities. In the research discussed here, we use as our prototype case the processing of proverbs because proverbs often make sense both when used either literally or figuratively (i.e. as a proverb), and so can be employed to examine (a) processing differences in integrating the literal or figurative sense of a sentence into equally supportive discourse contexts and (b) the type of contextual support that facilitates integration. Offline, reading time and ERP data will be presented. The examination of meaningful longer units, such as proverbs, is problematic for ERP studies that emphasize effects taking place at single words (with, for instance N400s) because discourse contexts might begin to influence comprehension even before the critical word is considered and continue to influence across the complete statement . With respect to ERP data, we time-lock to the first word of the critical statement, a technique that arguably captures slow wave potentials that develop over sentences and reflects the ease with which the target is integrated into an ongoing text model. Using this procedure we demonstrate processing differences that are not captured in word-by-word online reading tasks, that slow cortical potentials for proverbs are more negative at the front of the head than the same sentence used literally and that contextual cues influence integration earlier than if not present. These data point to an ongoing dynamic process of meaning integration and are problematic to several theoretical perspectives on non-literal processing, including the graded salience hypothesis.