Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Real-time sentence processing involves connecting linguistic inputwith knowledge. Here, we ask how variability in semantic memory(specific domain knowledge) may influence semantic access in real-time sentence processing. We recorded EEG while participantsmore/less knowledgeable about the narrative world of Harry Potter(HP) read sentences. In Experiment 1, all participants showed N400predictability effects for general-knowledge sentences, but onlythose with high HP knowledge showed predictability effects forsentences about Harry Potter. This effect was driven by graded brainresponses to predictable endings as a function of knowledge.Experiment 2 revealed greater semantic activation (inferred fromN400 effects) for HP items participants reported knowing. High-knowledge participants also showed greater semantic activation foritems they reported not knowing/remembering. These findingssuggest that amount and/or functional organization of knowledgehas real-time consequences on written sentence processing andimplicate implicit/partial access to domain knowledge for expertswhen information is not explicitly recalled.