Event-Related Potentials Accompanying Processing Referentially Ambiguous Pronouns in Russian

• Published in: Zurnal vyss̆ej nervnoj dejatelnosti imeni I P Pavlova Vol. 66; no. 5; p. 590
• Main Authors: Yurchenko, A N, Fedorova, O V, Kurgansky, A V, Machinskaya, R I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Russia (Federation) 01-09-2016
• Subjects: Adult; Brain - physiology; Comprehension - physiology; Electroencephalography; Evoked Potentials - physiology; Female; Humans; Male; Reading; Russia; Semantics; Task Performance and Analysis; Visual Perception - physiology; Russia
• ISSN: 0044-4677
• DOI: 10.7868/S0044467716050117

The study is based on the analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs) accompanying processing referentially ambiguous pronouns under condition when disambiguation is necessary for effective task performance. Par- ticipants were asked to match the pronoun in the second sentence with its antecedent (the noun phrase it is related to) in the first sentence in two conditions: experimental (two possible antecedents) and control (only one possible antecedent). Processing referentially ambiguous pronouns as compared to the control condition elicited an Nref effect - a diffuse ERP deflection 300-400 ms poststimulus that was earlier observed in Dutch and Chinese. Moreover, in contrast to previous results, no P600 effect - late positivity associated with ac- ceptability judgment under condition of referential ambiguity - was found. Our data in comparison with re- sults of previous studies indicate that strategies in processing referentially ambiguous pronouns (acceptability judgment) are determined not only by experimental task but also by absence/presence of anomalous trials in the experimental materials.