Masked priming effects on Finnish English learners’ metaphor comprehension : An ERP study

Abstract

The present study combined masked priming with event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the automaticity and time course of metaphor comprehension in Finnish–English learners. Participants performed a sensicality judgment task on familiar metaphors in Finnish (L1) and English (L2), with target words preceded by masked metaphorical, literal, or control primes. Behaviorally, higher accuracy was observed in L1 than in L2, with no reliable effects of prime type. By contrast, ERP results revealed clear modulation by language and prime. In L1, metaphorical primes elicited enhanced P200 responses relative to literal primes, indicating early perceptual-attentional facilitation, while unrelated primes produced the largest N400, reflecting increased semantic integration difficulty. Both metaphorical and literal primes elicited larger late positive components (LPCs) than control primes, suggesting parallel late-stage integration of literal and metaphorical meanings. In L2, both metaphorical and literal primes enhanced early P200 amplitudes relative to control primes, but metaphorical primes elicited larger N400 responses than literal primes, indicating weaker semantic facilitation. Conversely, literal primes elicited larger LPCs, reflecting a bias toward literal semantic integration. These findings suggest that masked priming modulated metaphor processing differently in L1 and L2, with L1 showing smaller P200, larger N400, and smaller LPC amplitudes than L2. These patterns indicate more automatic semantic activation and flexible integration in L1, whereas L2 metaphor comprehension shows a stronger bias toward literal processing. The distinct neurocognitive mechanism between L1 and L2 underscores the importance of L1 background and language experience in shaping the dynamics of metaphor comprehension across both languages.peerReviewe