Animacy matters: ERP evidence for the multi-dimensionality of topic-worthiness in Chinese
Animacy matters: ERP evidence for the multi-dimensionality of topic-worthiness in Chinese
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DOI：
10.1016/j.brainres.2014.01.046
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发表时间：
2014-03
期刊：
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Yu-Chen Hung;P. Schumacher
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Yu-Chen Hung;P. Schumacher
通过事件相关电位(ERP)研究，探讨了在话题加工过程中，生命性与给予性之间的相互作用。生动性和赋予性都被认为是话语内部的因素，有助于׳S形成一个最佳话题(即话题价值)。受试者在阅读问答对时记录了事件相关电位，其中目标句诱发了先前引入的话题的延续或交替(即，给定的或新的)。根据上下文的不同，一个潜在的主题在其生命性上与前一个主题进一步不同(即，有生命的与无生命的)。数据显示，在所有条件下，对于给定的新信息，N400都有很强的给予效应，N400减少，这证实了N400幅度随着基于背景的预期程度的不同而变化的假设。由此产生的N400效应被发现与生命体无关。更引人注目的是，我们还观察到，给予性与生命性在调节随后的后期积极效应方面存在交互作用，这被认为反映了内部语篇结构的努力和更新。当一个不那么突出的实体竞争话题时，总是会引发更明显的后期积极情绪。最重要的是，这项研究首次提供了电生理学证据，表明在确定话题价值的程度时，生命力大于赋予力作为启发式线索。
An event-related potential (ERP) study was conducted to investigate how animacy interacts with givenness during topic processing. Both animacy and givenness have been considered as within-discourse factors that contribute to an element׳s potential to form an optimal topic (i.e., topic-worthiness). ERPs were recorded while participants read question–answer pairs, of which the target sentence induced either a continuation or an alternation of a previously introduced topic (i.e., given vs. new). Depending on the context, a potential topic further differed in its animacy from the preceding one (i.e., animate vs. inanimate). The data revealed a robust givenness effect with an N400 reduction for given over new information across all conditions, substantiating the assumption that the N400 amplitude varies with the degree of context-based expectation. The resulting N400 effect was found independently of animacy. More strikingly, we also observed that givenness interacts with animacy in modulating the subsequent Late Positivity effect, which has been suggested to reflect internal discourse structuring effort and updating. A more pronounced Late Positivity was consistently elicited when a less prominent entity competed for topichood. Most crucially, the present research provides first electrophysiological evidence indicating that animacy outweighs givenness as a heuristic cue in determining the degree of topic-worthiness.