In:
Experimental Psychology, Hogrefe Publishing Group, Vol. 51, No. 4 ( 2004-01), p. 279-289
Abstract:
Abstract. The influence of interindividual differences in cognitive mechanisms on language comprehension remains controversial not only due to conflicting experimental findings, but also in view of the difficulty associated with determining which measure should be used in participant classification. Here, we address the latter problem by proposing that an electrophysiological measure, individual alpha frequency (IAF), may be a suitable means of classifying interindividual differences in sentence processing. Interindividual differences in IAF have been shown to correlate with performance on memory tasks and speed of information processing. In two experiments using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), IAF-based participant groups differed systematically with regard to the processing of ambiguous sentences such that the low-IAF group showed a sustained positivity in the ambiguous region, while the high-IAF group did not. These interindividual differences were independent of whether the ambiguity was syntactic (Experiment 1) or sentence-level semantic (Experiment 2). Moreover, they were reliable only when participants were classified according to IAF, but not in classifications based on reading span, speed of processing (reaction time), or accuracy of processing (error rate).
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1618-3169
,
2190-5142
DOI:
10.1027/1618-3169.51.4.279
Language:
German
Publisher:
Hogrefe Publishing Group
Publication Date:
2004
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1237835-5
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2073857-2
SSG:
2,1
SSG:
5,2
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