scholarly journals Children do not overcome lexical biases where adults do: the role of the referential scene in garden-path recovery

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 222-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
EVAN KIDD ◽  
ANDREW J. STEWART ◽  
LUDOVICA SERRATRICE
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Test Sentence ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Initial Analysis ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Scene Information ◽  
Lexical Cues

ABSTRACTIn this paper we report on a visual world eye-tracking experiment that investigated the differing abilities of adults and children to use referential scene information during reanalysis to overcome lexical biases during sentence processing. The results showed that adults incorporated aspects of the referential scene into their parse as soon as it became apparent that a test sentence was syntactically ambiguous, suggesting they considered the two alternative analyses in parallel. In contrast, the children appeared not to reanalyze their initial analysis, even over shorter distances than have been investigated in prior research. We argue that this reflects the children's over-reliance on bottom-up, lexical cues to interpretation. The implications for the development of parsing routines are discussed.

scholarly journals On-line processing of English which-questions by children and adults: a visual world paradigm study

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARLA CONTEMORI ◽  
MATTHEW CARLSON ◽  
THEODOROS MARINIS
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Visual World Paradigm ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Initial Preference ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
On Line ◽  
English Speaking

AbstractPrevious research has shown that children demonstrate similar sentence processing reflexes to those observed in adults, but they have difficulties revising an erroneous initial interpretation when they process garden-path sentences, passives, and wh-questions. We used the visual-world paradigm to examine children's use of syntactic and non-syntactic information to resolve syntactic ambiguity by extending our understanding of number features as a cue for interpretation to which-subject and which-object questions. We compared children's and adults’ eye-movements to understand how this information shapes children's commitment to and revision of possible interpretations of these questions. The results showed that English-speaking adults and children both exhibit an initial preference to interpret an object-which question as a subject question. While adults quickly override this preference, children take significantly longer, showing an overall processing difficulty for object questions. Crucially, their recovery from an initially erroneous interpretation is speeded when disambiguating number agreement features are present.

The Influence of only on Syntactic processing of “Long” Relative Clause Sentences

2002 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon P. Liversedge ◽  
Kevin B. Paterson ◽  
Emma L. Clayes
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Initial Processing

We report an eye movement experiment investigating the influence of the focus operator only on syntactic processing of “long” relative clause sentences. Paterson, Liversedge, and Underwood (1999) found that readers were garden pathed by “short” reduced relative clause sentences containing the focus operator only. They argued that due to thematic differences between “short” and “long” relative clause sentences, garden path effect might not occur when “long” reduced relative clause sentences are read. Eye-tracking data show that garden path effects found during initial processing of the disambiguating verb of “long” reduced sentences without only were absent or delayed in the case of counterparts with only. We discuss our results in terms of current theories of sentence processing.

scholarly journals The role of working memory in sentence processing in normal reading population. A review of related literature.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Grammenou Anastasia
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Memory Model ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Normal Reading ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Text Context ◽  
Working Memory Model

This essay aims to describe the factors that influence sentence processing with emphasis given on garden path sentences. The latter grammatical phenomenon has been proved more problematic in people with low working memory span. Predictions of the working memory model of Baddeley and Hich and the theory of language comprehension of Just and Carpenter were used to explain sentence processing within text context.

scholarly journals Quantifying individual differences in native and nonnative sentence processing

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Ian Cunnings ◽  
Hiroki Fujita
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Reading Speed ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Preliminary Examination ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Nonnative Language ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Research in sentence processing has increasingly examined the role of individual differences in language comprehension. In work on native and nonnative sentence processing, examining individual differences can contribute crucial insight into theoretical debates about the extent to which nativelike processing is possible in a nonnative language. Despite this increased interest in individual differences, whether commonly used psycholinguistic tasks can reliably measure individual differences between participants has not been systematically examined. As a preliminary examination of this issue in nonnative processing, we report a self-paced reading experiment on garden-path sentences in native and nonnative comprehension. At the group level we replicated previously observed findings in native and nonnative speakers. However, while we found that our self-paced reading experiment was a reliable way of assessing individual differences in overall reading speed and comprehension accuracy, it did not consistently measure individual differences in the size of garden-path effects in our sample (N = 64 native and 64 nonnative participants, and 24 experimental items). These results suggest that before individual differences in sentence processing can be meaningfully assessed, the question of whether commonly used tasks can consistently measure individual differences requires systematic examination.

scholarly journals Is reanalysis selective when regressions are consciously controlled?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Paape ◽  
Shravan Vasishth
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Short Distance ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Critical Words

The selective reanalysis hypothesis of Frazier and Rayner (1982) states that readers direct their eyes towards critical words in the sentence when faced with garden-path structures (e.g., Since Jay always jogs a mile seems like a short distance to him). Given the mixed evidence for this proposal in the literature, we investigated the possibility that selective reanalysis is tied to conscious awareness of the garden-path effect. To this end, we adapted the well-known self-paced reading paradigm to allow for regressive as well as progressive key presses. Assuming that regressions in such a paradigm are consciously controlled, we found no evidence for selective reanalysis, but rather for occasional extensive, heterogeneous rereading of garden-path sentences. We discuss the implications of our findings for the selective reanalysis hypothesis, the role of awareness in sentence processing, as well as the usefulness of the bidirectional self-paced reading method for sentence processing research.

Processing delays

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 65-78
Author(s):  
Loes Koring ◽  
Hans van de Koot
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Visual World Paradigm ◽  
Exact Time ◽  
On Line

Abstract An eye-tracking experiment using the Visual World Paradigm (VWP) shows that in on-line sentence processing in English the argument of an unaccusative verb reactivates late after verb offset. In contrast to previous studies, this VWP experiment establishes the exact time course of this effect, which matches the time course previously found for Dutch, despite differences in word order between the two languages. Furthermore, it uncovers an early reactivation of the argument of unergative verbs that has previously gone unnoticed. Such an effect has previously been observed for Dutch, but not for English. Moreover, the effect seems to occur earlier in English than in Dutch. We suggest that this difference may be due to the more rigid word order of English, which provides the parser with more informative cues.

scholarly journals How Animacy and Verbal Information Influence V2 Sentence Processing: Evidence from Eye Movements

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 630-649
Author(s):  
Peter de Swart ◽  
Geertje van Bergen
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Verbal Information ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Object A ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
Clear Association ◽  
Main Verb

AbstractThere exists a clear association between animacy and the grammatical function of transitive subject. The grammar of some languages require the transitive subject to be high in animacy, or at least higher than the object. A similar animacy preference has been observed in processing studies in languages without such a categorical animacy effect. This animacy preference has been mainly established in structures in which either one or both arguments are provided before the verb. Our goal was to establish (i) whether this preference can already be observed before any argument is provided, and (ii) whether this preference is mediated by verbal information. To this end we exploited the V2 property of Dutch which allows the verb to precede its arguments. Using a visual-world eye-tracking paradigm we presented participants with V2 structures with either an auxiliary (e.g. Gisteren heeft X … ‘Yesterday, X has …’) or a lexical main verb (e.g. Gisteren motiveerde X … ‘Yesterday, X motivated …’) and we measured looks to the animate referent. The results indicate that the animacy preference can already be observed before arguments are presented and that the selectional restrictions of the verb mediate this bias, but do not override it completely.

scholarly journals Role of expectation and working memory constraints in Hindi comprehension: An eyetracking corpus analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arpit Agrawal ◽  
Sumeet Agarwal ◽  
Samar Husain
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Fixation Time ◽  
Storage Cost ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Total Fixation ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Cost Metrics

We used the Potsdam-Allahabad Hindi eye-tracking corpus to investigate the role of word-level and sentence-level factors during sentence comprehension in Hindi. Extending previous work that used this eye-tracking data, we investigate the role of surprisal and retrieval cost metrics during sentence processing. While controlling for word-level predictors (word complexity, syllable length, unigram and bigram frequencies) as well as sentence-level predictors such as integration and storage costs, we find a significant effect of surprisal on first-pass reading times (higher surprisal value leads to increase in FPRT). Effect of retrieval cost was only found for a higher degree of parser parallelism. Interestingly, while surprisal has a significant effect on FPRT, storage cost (another prediction-based metric) does not. A significant effect of storage cost shows up only in total fixation time (TFT), thus indicating that these two measures perhaps capture different aspects of prediction. The study replicates previous findings that both prediction-based and memory-based metrics are required to account for processing patterns during sentence comprehension. The results also show that parser model assumptions are critical in order to draw generalizations about the utility of a metric (e.g. surprisal) across various phenomena in a language.

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