ERIC Number: EJ1244851
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Mar
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Lumos!: Electrophysiological Tracking of (Wizarding) World Knowledge Use during Reading
Troyer, Melissa; Urbach, Thomas P.; Kutas, Marta
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v46 n3 p476-486 Mar 2020
In Troyer and Kutas (2018), individual differences in knowledge of the world of Harry Potter (HP) rapidly modulated individuals' average electrical brain potentials to contextually supported words in sentence endings. Using advances in single-trial electroencephalogram analysis, we examined whether this relationship is strictly a result of domain knowledge mediating the proportion of facts each participant knew; we find it is not. Participants read sentences ending in a contextually supported word, reporting online whether they had known each fact. Participants' reports correlated with HP domain knowledge and reliably modulated event-related brain potentials to sentence-final words within 250 ms. Critically, domain knowledge had a dissociable influence in the same time window for endings that participants reported not having known and/or were less likely to be known/remembered across participants. We hypothesize that knowledge impacts written word processing primarily by affecting the neural processes of (implicit) retrieval from long-term memory (LTM): Greater knowledge eases otherwise difficult retrieval processes.
Descriptors: Eye Movements, Reading Processes, Brain Hemisphere Functions, Diagnostic Tests, Correlation, Individual Differences, Memory, Language Processing, Reading Comprehension, College Students, Adolescent Literature, Fiction, Task Analysis, Context Effect
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: HD022614
Author Affiliations: N/A