Anticipating predictability: an ERP investigation of expectation-managing discourse markers in dialogue comprehension

Figures & data

Table 1. Example of an experimental stimulus in each condition.

Context:	Diana is een weekend met haar klas van de kunstacademie naar Parijs geweest.
	Diana spent a weekend in Paris with her art academy class.
Question:	Haar vriendin vraagt: jullie hebben vast een hoop kunst gezien?
	Her friend asks: you guys must have seen a lot of art?
Answer:	Diane zegt: …
	Diane says: …
Condition	Plain Predictability	Pragmatic Coherence	Target sentence
Predictable Adverb	Predictable	n/a	We zijn daar elke dag naar een museum geweest.
			We have there every day to a museum been.
Unpredictable Adverb	Unpredictable	n/a	We zijn daar elke dag naar een park geweest.
			We have there every day to a park been.
Experiment 1
Predictable Eigenlijk	Predictable	Incoherent	We zijn eigenlijk elke dag naar een museum geweest.
			We have [actually] every day to a museum been.
Unpredictable Eigenlijk	Unpredictable	Coherent	We zijn eigenlijk elke dag naar een park geweest.
			We have [actually] every day to a park been.
Experiment 2
Predictable Inderdaad	Predictable	Coherent	We zijn inderdaad elke dag naar een museum geweest.
			We have [indeed] every day to a museum been.
Unpredictable Inderdaad	Unpredictable	Incoherent	We zijn inderdaad elke dag naar een park geweest.
			We have [indeed] every day to a park been.

Notes: Dutch word order was maintained in the translations of the target sentences. The critical manipulations are underlined (control adverb/discourse marker) or in boldface (critical word; CW). “Plain Predictability” refers to the predictability of the CW in the adverb conditions (i.e. predictability in the absence of a discourse marker); “Pragmatic Coherence” indicates the pragmatic fit of the (un)predictable CW when following a discourse marker.

Table 2. Cloze probabilities of critical words (CWs) in each condition.

Condition			CW cloze
	Plain Predictability	Pragmatic Coherence	M	[SD]
Predictable Adverb	Predictable	n/a	0.49	[0.50]
Unpredictable Adverb	Unpredictable	n/a	0.05	[0.23]
Experiment 1
Predictable Eigenlijk	Predictable	Incoherent	0.15	[0.36]
Unpredictable Eigenlijk	Unpredictable	Coherent	0.27	[0.45]
Experiment 2
Predictable Inderdaad	Predictable	Coherent	0.55	[0.50]
Unpredictable Inderdaad	Unpredictable	Incoherent	0.01	[0.07]

Figure 1. Grand-average ERPs time-locked to critical words at 9 scalp electrode sites (Experiment 1). Critical words were plain-predictable (green lines) or plain-unpredictable (red lines), and followed an adverb (solid lines) or eigenlijk (dashed lines). Negative is plotted up in all ERP figures.

Figure 2. Scalp topographies of the difference in N400 amplitude (upper panel) and in post-N400 positivity (lower panel) in response to plain-predictable vs. plain-unpredictable words (left panels), and in response to words following an adverb vs. eigenlijk (right panels).

Figure 3. Grand-average ERPs time-locked to critical words at 9 scalp electrode sites (Experiment 2). Critical words were plain-predictable (green lines) or plain-unpredictable (red lines), and followed an adverb (solid lines) or inderdaad (dashed lines).

Figure 4. Scalp topographies of the difference in N400 amplitude (upper panel) and in post-N400 positivity (lower panel) in response to plain-predictable vs. plain-unpredictable words (left panels), and in response to words following an adverb vs. inderdaad (right panels).