WHATS IN A PAUSE - EVENT-RELATED POTENTIAL ANALYSIS OF TEMPORAL DISRUPTIONS IN WRITTEN AND SPOKEN SENTENCES

Two experiments examined the effects of disrupting the temporal patter ns that develop during sentence reading and listening. Sentences were presented either visually, one word at a time (Experiment 1) or as nat ural speech (Experiment 2). Half of the sentences were familiar (prove rbs or idioms) while the other half were constructed anew for these ex periments. Within half the sentences, there was an unexpected 600-ms d elay between the final two words. In both modalities, the amplitude of the N400 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) to sent ence final words was larger for unfamiliar than familiar sentences. Th e results in the two modalities differed, however, in that a Contingen t Negative Variation (CNV) developed during the delay interval in the visual modality, whereas in the auditory modality the delay was marked by an emitted potential. The present results show that temporal patte rns are processed differently in natural speech and in reading words p resented one at a time in the center of a computer screen. (C) 1997 El sevier Science B.V.