Neural correlates in the time course of inferences: costs and benefits for less-skilled readers at the university level

This study investigates the costs and benefits of inference processing in university students with reading comprehension difficulties. Inferences, which combine implicit and explicit information, are seen as an indicator of better reading comprehension. The study focuses on three loci during narration: the last words of the first and second phrases, and a target word in a lexical decision task. Brain activity was recorded using event-related potentials (ERP) from 63 students as they read familiar, less-familiar, and neutral stories. The results revealed a slow negativity component at the first locus, with greater negativity for words from familiar contexts compared to less-familiar and neutral contexts. At the second locus, N400 and Post-N400 components reflected greater negativity for familiar contexts. At the third locus, FN400 and N400 components were observed for pseudowords. These findings suggest a bottom-up processing strategy, characterized by lexical access difficulties in less-skilled readers.