Abstract
During reading, does lexical processing occur for multiple words simultaneously? Cognitive science has yet to answer this prominent question. Recently it has been argued (Snell & Grainger, 2019, TiCS) that the issue warrants supplementing the field’s traditional toolbox (eye-tracking) with neuroscientific techniques. Indeed, according to the OB1- reader model, upcoming words need not impact oculomotor behavior per se, but parallel processing of these words must nonetheless be reflected in neural activity patterns. Here we combined EEG with eye-tracking, time-locking the neural window of interest to the fixation on target words in sentence reading. During these fixations, we manipulated the identity of the subsequent word so that it posed either a syntactically legal or illegal continuation of the sentence. In line with previous research, oculomotor measures were unaffected. Yet, syntax impacted brain potentials as early as 350 ms after the target fixation onset. As prior EEG studies show that syntactic processing unfolds approximately 600 ms into viewing a word, the presently observed timings support the notion of parallel word processing. We reckon that OB1-reader is a particularly promising platform for theorizing about the reading brain.