The congruent, the incongruent, and the unexpected: Event-related potentials unveil the processes involved in schematic encoding

Learning is most effective when new information can be related to a preexisting knowledge structure or schema. In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the temporal dynamics of the processes by which activated schemata support the encoding of schema-congruent information. Participants learned category exemplar words that were either semantically congruent or incongruent with a preceding category cue phrase....