title: Event-related potentials in response to violations of content and temporal event knowledge.
abstract: Scripts that store knowledge of everyday events are fundamentally important for managing daily routines. Content event knowledge (i.e., knowledge about which events belong to a script) and temporal event knowledge (i.e., knowledge about the chronological order of events in a script) constitute qualitatively different forms of knowledge. However, there is limited information about each distinct process and the time course involved in accessing content and temporal event knowledge. Therefore, we analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to either correctly presented event sequences or event sequences that contained a content or temporal error. We found an N400, which was followed by a posteriorly distributed P600 in response to content errors in event sequences. By contrast, we did not find an N400 but an anteriorly distributed P600 in response to temporal errors in event sequences. Thus, the N400 seems to be elicited as a response to a general mismatch between an event and the established event model. We assume that the expectancy violation of content event knowledge, as indicated by the N400, induces the collapse of the established event model, a process indicated by the posterior P600. The expectancy violation of temporal event knowledge is assumed to induce an attempt to reorganize the event model in working memory, a process indicated by the frontal P600.
authors.affiliation: Potsdam Research Institute for Multilingualism, Universität Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Janna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Drummer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 18, 12489 Berlin, Germany; Graduate School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstraße 56, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van der Meer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 18, 12489 Berlin, Germany; Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstr. 1 a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: gesa.schaadt@hu-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Gesa
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schaadt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Content event knowledge; Event model; N400; P600; Temporal event knowledge