ArticleJournal of memory and language2022
Context-based facilitation of semantic access follows both logarithmic and linear functions of stimulus probability.
Article in Journal of memory and language, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed.
- Neural tracking of surprisal and semantic distance in naturalistic movie viewing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sex Differences Influence ERP Components in Semantic Decisions.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Munich Sentence (MuSe) Database: Completion norms and audio recordings for 619 German sentences.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- Article
- Cognitive processing of semantic mismatch in Chinese reading: the moderating effect of contextual constraint.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Large Language Models as Distributional Baselines for Language Tasks.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Sentence processing by humans and machines: Large language models as a tool to better understand human reading.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Review
- Uncovering patterns of semantic predictability in sentence processing.Journal of memory and language · 2025Article
- Individual Differences in Statistical Learning and Semantic Adaptation: An N400 Study.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Prediction in reading: A review of predictability effects, their theoretical implications, and beyond.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Review
- A left-lateralized dorsolateral prefrontal network for naming.Cell reports · 2025Article
- The familiarity effect of Chinese stroke stimulus and imagery on contextual integration: Evidence from ERP correlates.PloS one · 2025Article
- Pupil Size Tracks the Effects of Global Context and Semantic Ambiguity on Word-Meaning Processing.Journal of cognition · 2025Article
- DERCo: A Dataset for Human Behaviour in Reading Comprehension Using EEG.Scientific data · 2024Article
- Cloze probability, predictability ratings, and computational estimates for 205 English sentences, aligned with existing EEG and reading time data.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Understanding words in context: A naturalistic EEG study of children's lexical processing.Journal of memory and language · 2024Article
- A predictive coding model of the N400.Cognition · 2024Article
- Dissociating the pre-activation of word meaning and form during sentence comprehension: Evidence from EEG representational similarity analysis.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Article
- Large-scale evidence for logarithmic effects of word predictability on reading time.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Surprisal From Language Models Can Predict ERPs in Processing Predicate-Argument Structures Only if Enriched by an Agent Preference Principle.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
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Abstract
Stimuli are easier to process when context makes them predictable, but does context-based facilitation arise from preactivation of a limited set of relatively probable upcoming stimuli (with facilitation then linearly related to probability) or, instead, because the system maintains and updates a probability distribution across all items (with facilitation logarithmically related to probability)? We measured the N400, an index of semantic access, to words of varying probability, including unpredictable words. Word predictability was measured using both cloze probabilities and a state-of-the-art machine learning language model (GPT-2). We reanalyzed five datasets (n = 138) to demonstrate and then replicate that context-based facilitation on the N400 is graded, even among unpredictable words. Furthermore, we established that the relationship between word predictability and context-based facilitation combines linear and logarithmic functions. We argue that this composite function reveals properties of the mapping between words and semantic features and how feature- and word-related information is activated on-line.
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