Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials
Counterfactual conditionals posit hypothetical scenarios in which antecedent events contradict reality. This study examined whether and how the processing difficulty of Chinese counterfactual conditionals ( yaobushi , equivalent to if it had not been for in English) can be affected by the length of...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d2c4df5f10294a139e70645f2a10f603 2024-01-21T10:04:02+01:00 Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials Lingda Kong Yong Jiang Yan Huang Xiaoming Jiang 2023-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13121724 https://doaj.org/article/d2c4df5f10294a139e70645f2a10f603 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/13/12/1724 https://doaj.org/toc/2076-3425 doi:10.3390/brainsci13121724 2076-3425 https://doaj.org/article/d2c4df5f10294a139e70645f2a10f603 Brain Sciences, Vol 13, Iss 12, p 1724 (2023) temporal shift likelihood of occurrence implied causal relationship Chinese counterfactuals N400 Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13121724 2023-12-24T01:37:40Z Counterfactual conditionals posit hypothetical scenarios in which antecedent events contradict reality. This study examined whether and how the processing difficulty of Chinese counterfactual conditionals ( yaobushi , equivalent to if it had not been for in English) can be affected by the length of temporal shifts of the events across clauses and the likelihood of the antecedent occurrence. Participants read Chinese counterfactuals that contained either long (e.g., qunian-xianzai [last year-right now]) or short temporal shifts (e.g., zuotian-xianzai [yesterday-right now]) within highly likely (e.g., sign up for school activity) or less likely contexts (e.g., sign up for Arctic scientific research). ERP results revealed a significant N400 interaction between the temporal shift length and antecedent likelihood on the temporal indicators in the consequent and the sentence-ending verbs. Specifically, the less likely events elicited larger negativity than highly likely events with short temporal shifts on the temporal indicator. On the sentence-ending word, the long temporal shift elicited enlarged negativity than the short temporal shift when the antecedent was highly likely. These findings have two key implications regarding the interplay of implied causality and falsity constraints during counterfactual comprehension. First, salient falsity constraints can override effects of causal coherence on processing. Second, greater negativity for unlikely antecedents suggests that counterfactual markers concurrently activate factual and hypothetical representations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Brain Sciences 13 12 1724 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
topic |
temporal shift likelihood of occurrence implied causal relationship Chinese counterfactuals N400 Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 |
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temporal shift likelihood of occurrence implied causal relationship Chinese counterfactuals N400 Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 Lingda Kong Yong Jiang Yan Huang Xiaoming Jiang Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials |
topic_facet |
temporal shift likelihood of occurrence implied causal relationship Chinese counterfactuals N400 Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 |
description |
Counterfactual conditionals posit hypothetical scenarios in which antecedent events contradict reality. This study examined whether and how the processing difficulty of Chinese counterfactual conditionals ( yaobushi , equivalent to if it had not been for in English) can be affected by the length of temporal shifts of the events across clauses and the likelihood of the antecedent occurrence. Participants read Chinese counterfactuals that contained either long (e.g., qunian-xianzai [last year-right now]) or short temporal shifts (e.g., zuotian-xianzai [yesterday-right now]) within highly likely (e.g., sign up for school activity) or less likely contexts (e.g., sign up for Arctic scientific research). ERP results revealed a significant N400 interaction between the temporal shift length and antecedent likelihood on the temporal indicators in the consequent and the sentence-ending verbs. Specifically, the less likely events elicited larger negativity than highly likely events with short temporal shifts on the temporal indicator. On the sentence-ending word, the long temporal shift elicited enlarged negativity than the short temporal shift when the antecedent was highly likely. These findings have two key implications regarding the interplay of implied causality and falsity constraints during counterfactual comprehension. First, salient falsity constraints can override effects of causal coherence on processing. Second, greater negativity for unlikely antecedents suggests that counterfactual markers concurrently activate factual and hypothetical representations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lingda Kong Yong Jiang Yan Huang Xiaoming Jiang |
author_facet |
Lingda Kong Yong Jiang Yan Huang Xiaoming Jiang |
author_sort |
Lingda Kong |
title |
Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials |
title_short |
Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials |
title_full |
Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials |
title_fullStr |
Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials |
title_full_unstemmed |
Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials |
title_sort |
temporal shift length and antecedent occurrence likelihood modulate counterfactual conditional comprehension: evidence from event-related potentials |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13121724 https://doaj.org/article/d2c4df5f10294a139e70645f2a10f603 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Brain Sciences, Vol 13, Iss 12, p 1724 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/13/12/1724 https://doaj.org/toc/2076-3425 doi:10.3390/brainsci13121724 2076-3425 https://doaj.org/article/d2c4df5f10294a139e70645f2a10f603 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13121724 |
container_title |
Brain Sciences |
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13 |
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12 |
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1724 |
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1788694452952367104 |