TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of order of mention and grammatical role on anaphor resolution
AU - Fukumura, Kumiko
AU - van-Gompel, Roger P. G.
PY - 2015/3
Y1 - 2015/3
N2 - A controversial issue in anaphoric processing has been whether processing preferences of anaphoric expressions are affected by the antecedent's grammatical role or surface position. Using eye tracking, Experiment 1 examined the comprehension of pronouns during reading, which revealed shorter reading times in the pronoun region and later regions when the antecedent was the subject than when it was the prepositional object. There was no effect of antecedent position. Experiment 2 showed that the choice between pronouns and repeated names during language production is also primarily affected by the antecedent's grammatical role. Experiment 3 examined the comprehension of repeated names, showing a clear effect of antecedent position. Reading times in the name region and in later regions were longer when the antecedent was 1st mentioned than 2nd mentioned, whereas the antecedent's grammatical role only affected regression measures in the name region, showing more processing difficulty with a subject than prepositional-object antecedent. Thus, the processing of pronouns is primarily driven by antecedent grammatical role rather than position, whereas the processing of repeated names is most strongly affected by position, suggesting that different representations and processing constraints underlie the processing of pronouns and names.
AB - A controversial issue in anaphoric processing has been whether processing preferences of anaphoric expressions are affected by the antecedent's grammatical role or surface position. Using eye tracking, Experiment 1 examined the comprehension of pronouns during reading, which revealed shorter reading times in the pronoun region and later regions when the antecedent was the subject than when it was the prepositional object. There was no effect of antecedent position. Experiment 2 showed that the choice between pronouns and repeated names during language production is also primarily affected by the antecedent's grammatical role. Experiment 3 examined the comprehension of repeated names, showing a clear effect of antecedent position. Reading times in the name region and in later regions were longer when the antecedent was 1st mentioned than 2nd mentioned, whereas the antecedent's grammatical role only affected regression measures in the name region, showing more processing difficulty with a subject than prepositional-object antecedent. Thus, the processing of pronouns is primarily driven by antecedent grammatical role rather than position, whereas the processing of repeated names is most strongly affected by position, suggesting that different representations and processing constraints underlie the processing of pronouns and names.
KW - Anaphor
KW - Discourse
KW - Language comprehension
KW - Pronoun
KW - Repeated name
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84925664665&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/xlm0000041
DO - 10.1037/xlm0000041
M3 - Article
C2 - 25068852
AN - SCOPUS:84925664665
VL - 41
SP - 501
EP - 525
JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
SN - 0278-7393
IS - 2
ER -