Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. The Antecedent Falsity Constraints of Counterfactuals
1.2. The Implied Causal Relation between the Antecedent and the Consequent in Counterfactual Conditionals
1.3. The Present Study
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Design and Material
Validation Tests
2.3. Procedure
2.4. EEG Recording and Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Behaviors
3.2. ERPs
3.2.1. Temporal Indicators of the Consequent
3.2.2. Sentence–Ending Words
4. Discussion
4.1. Temporal Shift and Counterfactual Processing
4.2. The N400 and Multiple Semantic Processes
4.3. Limitations and Future Study
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Condition | Sentence Exemplar |
---|---|
Less likely, short | yaobushi/Wang/yesterday/signed up for Arctic scientific research, he/now/would not/prepare seriously/ If Wang had not been taking part in the Arctic science expedition yesterday, he would not have prepared seriously now. |
Less likely, long | yaobushi/Wang/last year/signed up for Arctic scientific research, he/now/would not/prepare seriously/ If Wang had not been taking part in the Arctic science expedition last year, he would not have prepared seriously now. |
Highly likely, short | yaobushi/Wang/yesterday/signed up for school activities, he/now/would not/prepare seriously/ If Wang had not been taking part in the school activities yesterday, he would not have prepared seriously now. |
Highly likely, long | yaobushi/Wang/last year/signed up for school activities, he/now/would not/prepare seriously/ If Wang had not been taking part in the school activities yesterday, he would not have prepared seriously now. |
Condition | Length of Temporal Shift (1–7) | Likelihood of the Occurrence of the Antecedent Event | Strength of Causal Relationship | Likelihood of the Occurrence of What Is Described at Sentence Level (1–7) | Sentence Coherence (1–7) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M | SD | M | SD | M | SD | M | SD | M | SD | |
Less likely, short | 2.21 | 1.29 | 3.81 | 1.28 | 5.88 | 1.79 | 3.38 | 1.96 | 6.13 | 1.20 |
Less likely, long | 4.81 | 1.69 | 3.89 | 1.27 | 5.84 | 1.75 | 3.77 | 1.99 | 6.27 | 0.77 |
Highly likely, short | 1.88 | 1.25 | 6.29 | 1.43 | 4.65 | 1.78 | 5.64 | 1.34 | 6.21 | 0.94 |
Highly likely, long | 5.14 | 1.69 | 6.15 | 1.66 | 3.36 | 1.62 | 5.60 | 1.29 | 6.16 | 1.03 |
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Kong, L.; Jiang, Y.; Huang, Y.; Jiang, X. Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials. Brain Sci. 2023, 13, 1724. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13121724
Kong L, Jiang Y, Huang Y, Jiang X. Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials. Brain Sciences. 2023; 13(12):1724. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13121724
Chicago/Turabian StyleKong, Lingda, Yong Jiang, Yan Huang, and Xiaoming Jiang. 2023. "Temporal Shift Length and Antecedent Occurrence Likelihood Modulate Counterfactual Conditional Comprehension: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials" Brain Sciences 13, no. 12: 1724. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13121724