Hemispheric processing in conventional metaphor comprehension: The role of general knowledge.

This study explored the relation between general knowledge and the hemispheric processing of metaphoric expressions in college age students. We hypothesized that prior knowledge influences how the hemispheres process metaphors in these individuals. In this study, 97 young (college-aged) adults completed a general knowledge and vocabulary test, and were then divided into high-knowledge/high-vocabulary and low-knowledge/low-vocabulary groups.

Hemispheric processing of predictive inferences during reading: The influence of negatively emotional valenced stimuli.

Although a left hemisphere advantage is usually evident during language processing, the right hemisphere is highly involved during the processing of weakly constrained inferences. However, currently little is known about how the emotional valence of environmental stimuli influences the hemispheric processing of these inferences. In the current study, participants read texts promoting either strongly or weakly constrained predictive inferences and performed a lexical decision task to inference-related targets presented to the left visual field-right hemisphere or the right visual field-left hemisphere.

Hemispheric processing of predictive inferences: the influence of reading goals and textual constraint.

Recent findings suggest that textual constraint and reading goals influence inference generation. However, it is unclear how constraint and reading goals interact during predictive inference generation in the hemispheres. In the current divided visual field study, participants were given a study goal or not given a reading goal prior to reading text that was either strongly or weakly constrained toward a predictive inference.

Hemispheric processing of mental representations during text comprehension: evidence for inhibition of inconsistent shape information.

To successfully understand a text, readers often mentally represent the shape of an object described in a text (e.g., creating a mental image of a sliced tomato when reading about a tomato on a pizza).

Hemispheric processing of inferences during text comprehension: the role of consistency and task difficulty.

Although the hemispheres likely carry out different processes during reading, currently little is known about how the consistency effect and the difficulty of the task influences hemispheric processing during text comprehension. In the current study participants read texts promoting an inference, and performed a lexical decision task to inference-related targets presented to the left visual field-right hemisphere or the right visual field-left hemisphere. To manipulate the consistency of information targets were either consistent or inconsistent with the inference.

Hemispheric differences for enhancement and suppression mechanisms during story comprehension.

Although readers are able to follow the goals of a character in a story, little is currently known about the underlying enhancement and suppression mechanisms that occur in each cerebral hemisphere. In this study, participants read texts that mentioned a goal of a character, which was later followed by information related to the original goal, a new goal, or unrelated information. Participants then performed a lexical decision task to original-goal-related targets, which were presented to either the left visual field-right hemisphere or the right visual field-left hemisphere.

Hemispheric processing in bilinguals: The role of shared meanings across languages and sentential constraint.

In monolinguals, the right hemisphere plays a key role when readers process multiple meanings of ambiguous words and when text weakly leads to a specific outcome (i.e., is weakly constrained).

A Longitudinal Analysis of Criminal and Aggressive Behaviors among a National Sample of Adults in Mutual-Help Recovery Homes.

Criminal and aggressive behaviors are frequently observed among those recovering from substance abuse problems. In the present one-year longitudinal study, a national sample of residents from self-governed, communal living recovery homes for substance abuse completed baseline and follow-up measures of criminal and aggressive behavior. Results indicated that a length of stay of six months or longer was associated with lower levels of self-reported criminal and aggressive behaviors at the one-year follow-up.

Hemispheric processing of semantic information: the effects of the semantic priming task and working memory capacity.

In a classic semantic priming study (Beeman et al., 1994), participants showed a naming advantage for strongly related targets compared to weakly related targets in the left hemisphere, whereas no difference in naming advantage was found between strongly and weakly related targets in the right hemisphere. However, it is unclear how the type of task and individual differences influence this hemispheric activation.

Inferences during story comprehension: cortical recruitment affected by predictability of events and working memory capacity.

Although it has been consistently shown that readers generate bridging inferences during story comprehension, little is currently known about the neural substrates involved when people generate inferences and how these substrates shift with factors that facilitate or impede inferences, such as whether inferences are highly predictable or unpredictable. In the current study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal increased for highly predictable inferences (relative to events that were previously explicitly stated) bilaterally in both the superior temporal gyri and the inferior frontal gyri. Interestingly, high working memory capacity comprehenders, who are most likely to generate inferences during story comprehension, showed greater signal increases than did low working memory capacity comprehenders in the right superior temporal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus.

Hemispheric processing of inferences: the effects of textual constraint and working memory capacity.

In this study, we investigated hemispheric differences in the generation of bridging and predictive inferences. Participants read texts that provided either strong or weak causal constraints for a particular bridging (Experiment 1) or predictive (Experiment 2) inference and performed a lexical decision task to inference-related targets presented to the left or the right hemisphere. Facilitation for strongly constrained bridging and predictive inferences was found in both hemispheres.

Neural activity of inferences during story comprehension.

In this event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, participants listened to and comprehended short stories implying or explicitly stating inference events. The aim of this study was to examine the neural mechanisms that underlie inference generation, a process essential to successful comprehension. We observed distinct patterns of increased fMRI signal for implied over explicit events at two critical points during the stories: (1) within the right superior temporal gyrus when a verb in the text implied the inference; and (2) within the left superior temporal gyrus at the coherence break or when participants need to generate an inference to understand the story.

Evidence for dissociable neural mechanisms underlying inference generation in familiar and less-familiar scenarios.

In this study, we investigated whether the left and right hemispheres are differentially involved in causal inference generation. Participants read short inference-promoting texts that described either familiar or less-familiar scenarios. After each text, they performed a lexical decision on a letter string (which sometimes constituted an inference-related word) presented directly to the left or right hemisphere.

Hemispheric processing of anaphoric inferences: the activation of multiple antecedents.

This research investigates the hemispheric processing of anaphors when readers activate multiple antecedents. Participants read texts promoting an anaphoric inference and performed a lexical decision task to inference-related target words that were consistent (Experiment 1) or inconsistent (Experiment 2) with the text. These targets were preceded by constrained or less constraining text and were presented to participants' right visual field-left hemisphere or to their left visual field-right hemisphere.