Beyond the Sentence Given Hagoort & van Berkum (2007)
Argue against the two stage model of sentence comprehension where first literal semantic meaning is computed and then this information is interpreted with world knowledge, prior discourse and speaker information in favor of immediate unification of all information sources. Uses ERP and fMRI studies to show similar behavior for semantic, world knowledge, and discourse coherence violations. Primary evidence is increased activity in LIFG and Brodmann’s area 45 and increased and identical amplitude for N400 waves in anomalous cases. Strong argument for a unification based theory of interpretation where many types of information from different cognitive sources are available to comprehension and interpretation process.