Individual differences in syntactic ambiguity resolution: Readers vary in their use of plausibility information

Two experiments investigated the relation between individual differences in working memory capacity and differences in the efficiency of syntactic processing. In one experiment, readers comprehended sentences containing main-verb/reduced-relative ambiguities that all resolved to the reduced-relative...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Memory & cognition 2008-03, Vol.36 (2), p.375-391
Main Authors: Long, Debra L., Prat, Chantel S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambiguity
Attention
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Psychology
Comprehension
Concept Formation
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Generalization (Psychology)
Humans
Individuality
Information sources
Language
Memory
Memory, Short-Term
Production and perception of written language
Psycholinguistics
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Reading
Reading comprehension
Semantics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Two experiments investigated the relation between individual differences in working memory capacity and differences in the efficiency of syntactic processing. In one experiment, readers comprehended sentences containing main-verb/reduced-relative ambiguities that all resolved to the reduced-relative interpretation. High-span (but not low-span) readers processed sentences more slowly when the sentences were biased to the preferred, main-verb interpretation than when they were biased to the reduced-relative interpretation. Moreover, high-span (but not lowspan) readers used information about the plausibility of the different interpretations even though low-span readers appeared to possess the requisite knowledge. In Experiment 2, readers received intensive exposure to sentences with main-verb/reduced-relative ambiguities. Exposure enhanced low-span readers’ use of plausibility information. Moreover, the effect of exposure generalized to sentences that were not included in the training materials.
ISSN:0090-502X
1532-5946
DOI:10.3758/MC.36.2.375