Traxler, M. J., Bybee, M. D., & Pickering, M. J. (1997). Influence of connectives on language comprehension: Eye-tracking evidence for incremental interpretation. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Section A, 50(3), 481-497.
Traxler, M.; Bybee, M.; Pickering, M.
1997
Traxler, M. J., Bybee, M. D., & Pickering, M. J. (1997). Influence of connectives on language comprehension: Eye-tracking evidence for incremental interpretation. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Section A, 50(3), 481-497.
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This study investigated the processing of causal and diagnostic sentences containing the connective because to determine whether incremental interpretation applies to interclausal relationships. The eye movements of 32 college students were monitored as they read 24 causal and diagnostic sentences. In the causal sentences the 2nd clause contained a plausible explanation for the events described in the 1st clause, while in the diagnostic sentences, the 2nd clause contained evidence that the 1st clause was a true statement. Results indicated that difficulty processing diagnostic sentences occurred well before the end of the second clause. Readers incrementally constructed a semantic interpretation of the 2nd clause before they reached the end of the sentence. Comprehenders appear to compute interclausal relationships incrementally. These findings are incompatible with the delayed-integration hypothesis of K. K. Millis and M. A. Just (1994).
The experiment demonstrated that construction of a unified semantic representation of two clauses can proceed incrementally. In this experiment, the clauses were joined by the connective because, which preferentially signals a causal relationship between clauses but can also signal a diagnostic relationship. Disruption from when subject reached the middle of the second clause onward indicates that reads incrementally contrasted a semantic interpretation of the second clause and assessed it as a cause of the state of affairs described in the first clause long before they reached the end of the sentence.
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