The effects of syntactic expectations during reading

Two experiments examined the effects of knowing the syntactic structure of a sentence before reading it. In Exp I, 24 college students were required to remember a sequence of numbers before reading a sentence displayed at a constant rate. When the syntactic structure was known beforehand, Ss were ab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of educational psychology 1976-10, Vol.68 (5), p.597-602
Main Author: Wisher, Robert A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Human
Reading
Reading Speed
Recall (Learning)
Sentence Structure
Syntax
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Summary:Two experiments examined the effects of knowing the syntactic structure of a sentence before reading it. In Exp I, 24 college students were required to remember a sequence of numbers before reading a sentence displayed at a constant rate. When the syntactic structure was known beforehand, Ss were able to devote more effort to rehearsing the numbers while reading the sentence. Consequently, their recall of the number sequence was superior. In Exp II, 8 undergraduates were timed while reading individual sentences. When the syntactic structure was known beforehand, reading times decreased. Results are explained in terms of linguistic decisions, memory storage during reading, and reading as an interactive process.
ISSN:0022-0663
1939-2176
DOI:10.1037/0022-0663.68.5.597