The Mental Process Of Negative Sentences With Different Properties

The recent cognitive theories on negation has offered different theoretical explanations and experimental supports on the mental process of reading negative sentence. The two-step simulation hypothesis hold that once enough processing time is allowed, negation affects suppression of negated concepts unconditionally so that they are(a) discarded· from the mental representation altogether and(b) replaced by an available opposite.While The suppression/retention hypothesis argue that suppression following negation is not obligatory but sensitive to discourse goals and requirements. Current research suggests that the property of negative sentence itself will influence the mental process of negative sentences and the final mental simulation in the brain, thus the process of abstract negative sentence and concrete negative sentence become diffident at later processing stage.We discussed the dynamic perceptual representation process of reading Chinese negative sentence of different nature by using lexical/picture decision paradigm, with the response time and accuracy of the lexical/picture decision as the dependent variables, with the negative sentence of different nature and the paired positive sentences as experimental materials. And the subjects in this study were students in Zhengzhou University. The experiment includes two large experiments,each large experiment comprises two small experiment.To verify whether Chinese negative metaphorical sentence conforms to The suppression/retention hypothesis, experiment 1 discussed the dynamic perceptual representation process of reading Chinese negative metaphorical sentence by using lexical decision paradigm.The experiment contains two small experiments. Experiment 1a investigated the psychological processing characteristics of the subjects while they were at the early stage of reading negative metaphorical sentences(ISO at 250ms). Experiment 1b investigated the psychological processing characteristics of the subjects while they were at the later stage of reading negative metaphorical sentences(ISO at 1500ms).To verify whether Chinese negative concrete sentence conforms to The two-step simulation hypothesis,experiment 2 discussed the dynamic perceptual representation process of the Chinese negative concrete sentences by using picture detection paradigm.The experiment includes two small experiments,too. Experiment 2a investigated the psychological processing characteristics of the subjects while they were at the early stage of reading negative concrete sentences(ISO at 250ms) Experiment 2b investigated the psychological processing characteristics of the subjects while they were at the later stage of reading negative concrete sentences(ISO at 1500ms).The consequences of the four experiments turns out that a).The process of reading negative metaphorical sentence and the process of reading negative concrete sentences is different. The variable between abstraction and concreteness is the key factor of affecting the process of reading negative sentences. b)The negative meaning of abstract negative sentence has been simulated at early processing stage,and the simulation were maintained in the brain even at later processing stage. This suggests that the simulation of the actual meaning does not affect the simulation of negative meaning, and the suppression following negation is not obligatory. c)The negative meaning of concrete negative sentence has been also simulated at early processing stage,but the advantages effect of the negative meaning has disappeared at later processing stage. That is to say with the simulation of the actual meaning of concrete negative sentence,the simulation of the negative meaning has been suppressed. d) We put forward a Dual Processing Model of Netation, and we hold that the suppression of the mental simulation of the negative meaning is a flexible choice.