Processing negated sentences with contradictory predicates:: Is a door that is not open mentally closed?

We investigated whether comprehenders of isolated negative sentences with contradictory predicates (e.g., The door was not open) have available a representation of the actual state of affairs (closed door) from a certain point in the comprehension process on. In a self-paced-reading paradigm, participants were presented with affirmative and negative sentences in which a target entity and a contradictory predicate were being mentioned. After reading the sentence, participants were presented with a picture of the target entity that either matched or mismatched the entity's properties in the described world, and their task was to name out loud as quickly as possible the name of the depicted entity. When the delay between sentence and picture was 750 ms, a match effect with respect to the actual state of affairs occurred for the affirmative versions of the sentences but not for the negative versions of the sentences. When the delay was 1500 ms, a match effect with respect to the actual state of affairs occurred for the negative but not for the affirmative versions. The results are interpreted in the context of the experiential-simulations view of comprehension. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.