The parallel mechanism of semantic context influences and parafoveal word identification.

Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have shown that the N400 effect tracks with the isolation point of a word in spoken language comprehension. These results suggested the semantic context of a sentence influences word processing before word identification. However, this delayed effect of N400 latency is not often the case in written language comprehension. The present study combined ERP with a rapid serial visual presentation with flanker (RSVP-flanker) method to examine this issue when words were presented in the parafovea. We manipulated three kinds of critical words: expected (EXP), semantically violated (VIO) and semantically cohort violated (COH-VIO). The ERP results showed that the parafoveal N400 effect was delayed in the contrast of COH-VIO vs. EXP than the contrast of VIO vs. EXP. These results suggested that the semantic context influences parafoveal word processing before word identification in written language comprehension.