Pronoun Resolution and Discourse Models

Psychological investigations of pronoun resolution have implicitly assumed that the processes involved automatically provide a unique referent for every pronoun. We challenge this assumption and propose a new framework for studying pronoun resolution. Drawing on advances in discourse representation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition memory, and cognition, 1992-03, Vol.18 (2), p.266-283
Main Authors: Greene, Steven B, McKoon, Gail, Ratcliff, Roger
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Biological and medical sciences
Cognitive Processes
Concept Formation
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Language
Learning
Linguistics
Methodology
Miscellaneous
Pronouns
Psycholinguistics
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Reading
Semantics
Social research
Verbal Communication
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Summary:Psychological investigations of pronoun resolution have implicitly assumed that the processes involved automatically provide a unique referent for every pronoun. We challenge this assumption and propose a new framework for studying pronoun resolution. Drawing on advances in discourse representation and global memory modeling, this framework suggests that automatic processes may not always identify a unique referent for a pronoun. In 9 experiments, we demonstrate that, unlike noun anaphors, pronouns sometimes do not produce relative facilitation of their referents in comparison with nonreferents. We argue that research on pronoun resolution must consider the discourse contexts in which pronouns are likely to occur.
ISSN:0278-7393
1939-1285
DOI:10.1037/0278-7393.18.2.266