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Abstract:
The present study examined left and right hemispheres
involvement in discourse processing by testing the ability of each
hemisphere to use world knowledge in the form of script contexts
for word recognition. Scripts were defined as 4 sentences that
describe common situations. Participants made lexical decisions to
laterally presented target words and nonwords preceded by centrally
presented script contexts taken from normative script lists. There
were six types of primes, consisting of either single scripts or
combinations of two different scripts: (1) a related script, (2) an
unrelated script, (3) a related script + a neutral filler, (4) a
related script + an unrelated script, (5) an unrelated script + a
related script, and (6) a neutral baseline condition. Results
indicated that in the left hemisphere, only related scripts or
related scripts preceded by unrelated scripts facilitated target
word recognition. In contrast, the right hemisphere gained
significant facilitation from all combinations of script primes,
including related scripts followed by either filler materials or
unrelated scripts. These results are consistent with the theory
that the right hemisphere contributes in a critical way to
discourse comprehension by maintaining widespread meaning
activation for an extended period. This unique ability of the right
hemisphere may be especially important for integrative processes
needed to achieve global coherence during discourse
processing.
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