Research reportIncremental comprehension of spoken quantifier sentences: Evidence from brain potentials

- ERP experiment on quantifier interpretation using spoken sentences.
- True words elicited smaller N400s than false words.
- Comparable N400 truth-effect in positive and negative quantifier sentences.
- Pattern reflects full incremental quantifier interpretation.
- Auditory language comprehension is more incremental than word-by-word-reading.

Do people incrementally incorporate the meaning of quantifier expressions to understand an unfolding sentence? Most previous studies concluded that quantifiers do not immediately influence how a sentence is understood based on the observation that online N400-effects differed from offline plausibility judgments. Those studies, however, used serial visual presentation (SVP), which involves unnatural reading. In the current ERP-experiment, we presented spoken positive and negative quantifier sentences (“Practically all/practically no postmen prefer delivering mail, when the weather is good/bad during the day”). Different from results obtained in a previously reported SVP-study (Nieuwland, 2016) sentence truth-value N400 effects occurred in positive and negative quantifier sentences alike, reflecting fully incremental quantifier comprehension. This suggests that the prosodic information available during spoken language comprehension supports the generation of online predictions for upcoming words and that, at least for quantifier sentences, comprehension of spoken language may proceed more incrementally than comprehension during SVP reading.