Effects of Negation, Truth Value, and Delay on Picture Recognition after Reading Affirmative and Negative Sentences

Participants read sentences of the type The X is (not) above/below the Y and were subsequently presented with a picture of the two objects mentioned in the sentence, either in the correct or in the incorrect spatial relation. Participants judged as quickly as possible whether both depicted objects were mentioned in the sentence. A negation-by-truth-value interaction was observed when the picture was presented without delay; a main effect of truth value was observed when the delay was 1500 ms. Both response-time patterns are well known from studies employing a sentence-picture verification task. Our results indicate that these findings are not dependent on verification. They moreover indicate that temporal characteristics of the task help explain why and when one or the other response-time pattern emerges. An account in terms of the experiential-simulations view of comprehension is discussed.