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ERIC Number: EJ1307204
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jun
Pages: 30
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Recovery from Misinterpretations during Online Sentence Processing
Blott, Lena M.; Rodd, Jennifer M.; Ferreira, Fernanda; Warren, Jane E.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v47 n6 p968-997 Jun 2021
Misinterpretations during language comprehension are common. The ability to recover from processing difficulties is therefore crucial for successful day-to-day communication. Previous research on the recovery from misinterpretations has focused on sentences containing syntactic ambiguities. The present study instead investigated the outcome of comprehension processes and online reading behavior when misinterpretations occurred due to lexical--semantic ambiguity. Ninety-six adult participants read "garden-path" sentences in which an ambiguous word was disambiguated toward an unexpected meaning (e.g., "The ball was crowded"), while their eye movements were monitored. A meaning coherence judgment task required them to decide whether or not each sentence made sense. Results suggested that readers did not always engage in reinterpretation processes but instead followed a "good enough" processing strategy. Successful detection of a violation of sentence coherence and associated reinterpretation processes also required additional processing time compared to sentences that did not induce a misinterpretation. Although these reinterpretation-related processing costs were relatively stable across individuals, there was some evidence to suggest that readers with greater lexical expertise benefited from greater sensitivity to the disambiguating information, and were able to flexibly adapt their online reading behavior to recover from misinterpretations more efficiently.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institute on Aging (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: California
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1R56AG05334601A1
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/hn3bu/
Author Affiliations: N/A