TY - JOUR
T1 - The processing of contradictory and non-contradictory negative sentences
AU - Du, Ping
AU - Liu, Daiying
AU - Zhang, Li
AU - Hitchman, Glenn
AU - Lin, Chongde
N1 - Funding Information:
Correspondence should be addressed to Li Zhang, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education) and Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. E-mail: [email protected]; and Chongde Lin, Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. E-mail: [email protected] We thank Sangeet Khemlani and other two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on an earlier version of this study. The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number NSFC 30900408].
PY - 2014/5/19
Y1 - 2014/5/19
N2 - Negative sentences implicitly refer to two states of affairs: the negated state of affairs and the actual state of affairs. The present study investigated whether the negated state of affairs was represented when processing negative sentences. By exploring the effects of the types of negation (contradictory and non-contradictory) and delays (250 and 1,500 ms) on the processing of negative sentences in a sentence-picture verification task, two experiments indicated that the negated state of affairs of negation was not always represented unconditionally. In addition, types of negation, rather than time delays, had a significant influence on the processing of negative sentences. For contradictory negations, the actual state of affairs rather than the negated state of affairs was available, even when the delay between the sentence and picture was short. In contrast, the negated state of affairs was represented for non-contradictory negations, even with a long delay.
AB - Negative sentences implicitly refer to two states of affairs: the negated state of affairs and the actual state of affairs. The present study investigated whether the negated state of affairs was represented when processing negative sentences. By exploring the effects of the types of negation (contradictory and non-contradictory) and delays (250 and 1,500 ms) on the processing of negative sentences in a sentence-picture verification task, two experiments indicated that the negated state of affairs of negation was not always represented unconditionally. In addition, types of negation, rather than time delays, had a significant influence on the processing of negative sentences. For contradictory negations, the actual state of affairs rather than the negated state of affairs was available, even when the delay between the sentence and picture was short. In contrast, the negated state of affairs was represented for non-contradictory negations, even with a long delay.
KW - Negation
KW - The one-step model
KW - The two-step model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84899438240&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/20445911.2014.903957
DO - 10.1080/20445911.2014.903957
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84899438240
SN - 2044-5911
VL - 26
SP - 461
EP - 472
JO - Journal of Cognitive Psychology
JF - Journal of Cognitive Psychology
IS - 4
ER -