Neural Dissociation within Language: Lexical Memory is Part of Declarative Memory Grammatical Rules are Processed by Procedural System

Event-Related Potentials

Lexical/semantic processing

• Low and high proficiency L2:

• N400s present

Grammatical processing

• Lower proficiency L2:

• No LANs; sometimes N400-like negativities

• P600s generally present

• Higher proficiency L2:

• LANs (including in artificial language)

• P600s

(Webber-Fox and Neville, 1996, 1999; Osterhout & McLaughlin, 2000; Hahne, 2000, 2001; Hahne and Friederici, 2001; Friederici, Steinhauer & Pfeifer, 2002)

Second Language