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Fernanda Ferreira - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Lingering misinterpretations of Garden Path sentences arise from competing syntactic representations
Journal of Memory and Language, 2013Co-Authors: Timothy J. Slattery, Kiel Christianson, Patrick Sturt, Masaya Yoshida, Fernanda FerreiraAbstract:Recent work has suggested that readers’ initial and incorrect interpretation of temporarily ambiguous (‘‘Garden Path’’) sentences (e.g., Christianson, Hollingworth, Halliwell, & Ferreira, 2001) sometimes lingers even after attempts at reanalysis. These lingering effects have been attributed to incomplete reanalysis. In two eye tracking experiments, we distinguish between two types of incompleteness: the language comprehension system might not build a faithful syntactic structure, or it might not fully erase the structure built during an initial misparse. The first experiment used reflexive binding and the gender mismatch paradigm to show that a complete and faithful structure is built following processing of the Garden-Path. The second experiment used two-sentence texts to examine the extent to which the Garden-Path meaning from the first sentence interferes with reading of the second. Together, the results indicate that misinterpretation effects are attributable not to failure in building a proper structure, but rather to failure in cleaning up all remnants of earlier attempts to build that syntactic representation.
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Conceptual plural information is used to guide early parsing decisions : Evidence from Garden-Path sentences with reciprocal verbs
Journal of memory and language, 2009Co-Authors: Nikole D. Patson, Fernanda FerreiraAbstract:In three eyetracking studies, we investigated the role of conceptual plurality in initial parsing decisions in temporarily ambiguous sentences with reciprocal verbs (e.g., While the lovers kissed the baby played alone). We varied the subject of the first clause using three types of plural noun phrases: conjoined noun phrases (the bride and the groom), plural definite descriptions (the lovers), and numerically quantified noun phrases (the two lovers). We found no evidence for Garden-Path effects when the subject was conjoined (Ferreira & McClure, 1997), but traditional Garden-Path effects were found with the other plural noun phrases. In addition, we tested plural anaphors that had a plural antecedent present in the discourse. We found that when the antecedent was conjoined, Garden-Path effects were absent compared to cases in which the antecedent was a plural definite description. Our results indicate that the parser is sensitive to the conceptual representation of a plural constituent. In particular, it appears that a Complex Reference Object (Moxey et al., 2004) automatically activates a reciprocal reading of a reciprocal verb.
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Lingering misinterpretations in Garden-Path sentences: evidence from a paraphrasing task.
Journal of experimental psychology. Learning memory and cognition, 2009Co-Authors: Nikole D. Patson, Emily S. Darowski, Nicole Moon, Fernanda FerreiraAbstract:Using a forced-choice question-answering paradigm, K. Christianson, A. Hollingworth, J. F. Halliwell, and F. Ferreira (2001) showed that the original misinterpretation built during the analysis of a Garden-Path sentence lingers even after reanalysis has occurred. However, their methodology has been questioned (R. P. G. van Gompel, M. J. Pickering, J. Pearson, & G. Jacob, 2006). In this study, the authors report evidence for lingering misinterpretations using a paraphrasing methodology, which is less biased than previous methodologies. Using paraphrasing, they found that Garden-Path sentences are paraphrased according to a partially reanalyzed interpretation. This finding suggests that the arguments put forward by Christianson et al. are correct: Comprehenders' final interpretations of sentences are often incorrect and do not correspond to the initial input. These findings support the theory that comprehension can occur in a "good-enough" manner (F. Ferreira, V. Ferraro, & K. G. D. Bailey, 2002; F. Ferreira & N. Patson, 2007).
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Younger and Older Adults' “Good-Enough” Interpretations of Garden-Path Sentences
Discourse processes, 2006Co-Authors: Kiel Christianson, Rose T. Zacks, Carrick C. Williams, Fernanda FerreiraAbstract:We report 3 experiments that examined younger and older adults' reliance on "good-enough" interpretations for Garden-Path sentences (e.g., "While Anna dressed the baby played in the crib") as indicated by their responding "Yes" to questions probing the initial, syntactically unlicensed interpretation (e.g., "Did Anna dress the baby?"). The manipulation of several factors expected to influence the probability of generating or maintaining the unlicensed interpretation resulted in 2 major age differences: Older adults were generally more likely to endorse the incorrect interpretation for sentences containing optionally transitive verbs (e.g., hunted, paid), and they showed decreased availability of the correct interpretation of subordinate clauses containing reflexive absolute transitive verbs (e.g., dress, bathe). These age differences may in part be linked to older adults' increased reliance on heuristic-like good-enough processing to compensate for age-related deficits in working memory capacity. The resu...
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Lingering effects of disfluent material on comprehension of Garden Path sentences
Language and Cognitive Processes, 2005Co-Authors: Ellen F. Lau, Fernanda FerreiraAbstract:In two experiments, we tested for lingering effects of verb replacement disfluencies on the processing of Garden Path sentences that exhibit the main verb/reduced relative (MV/RR) ambiguity. Participants heard sentences with revisions like The little girl chosen, uh, selected for the role celebrated with her parents and friends. We found that the syntactic ambiguity associated with the reparandum verb involved in the disfluency (here chosen) had an influence on later parsing: Garden Path sentences that included such revisions were more likely to be judged grammatical if the reparandum verb was structurally unambiguous. Conversely, ambiguous non-Garden Path sentences were more likely to be judged ungrammatical if the structurally unambiguous disfluency verb was inconsistent with the final reading. Results support a model of disfluency processing in which the syntactic frame associated with the replacement verb “overlays” the previous verb's structure rather than actively deleting the already-built tree.
Kiel Christianson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Why reread? Evidence from Garden-Path and local coherence structures.
Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 2016Co-Authors: Kiel Christianson, Steven G. Luke, Erika K. Hussey, Kacey L. WochnaAbstract:Two eye-tracking experiments were conducted to compare the online reading and offline comprehension of main verb/reduced relative Garden-Path sentences and local coherence sentences. Rereading of early material in Garden-Path reduced relatives should be revisionary, aimed at reanalysing an earlier misparse; however, rereading of early material in a local coherence reduced relative need only be confirmatory, as the original parse of the earlier portion of these sentences is ultimately correct. Results of online and offline measures showed that local coherence structures elicited signals of reading disruption that arose earlier and lasted longer, and local coherence comprehension was also better than Garden Path comprehension. Few rereading measures in either sentence type were predicted by structural features of these sentences, nor was rereading related to comprehension accuracy, which was extremely low overall. Results are discussed with respect to selective reanalysis and good-enough processing.
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Neural correlates of early-closure Garden-Path processing: Effects of prosody and plausibility
Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 2015Co-Authors: Dirk-bart Den Ouden, Michael Walsh Dickey, Catherine Anderson, Kiel ChristiansonAbstract:Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate neural correlates of early-closure Garden-Path sentence processing and use of extrasyntactic information to resolve temporary sy...
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Lingering misinterpretations of Garden Path sentences arise from competing syntactic representations
Journal of Memory and Language, 2013Co-Authors: Timothy J. Slattery, Kiel Christianson, Patrick Sturt, Masaya Yoshida, Fernanda FerreiraAbstract:Recent work has suggested that readers’ initial and incorrect interpretation of temporarily ambiguous (‘‘Garden Path’’) sentences (e.g., Christianson, Hollingworth, Halliwell, & Ferreira, 2001) sometimes lingers even after attempts at reanalysis. These lingering effects have been attributed to incomplete reanalysis. In two eye tracking experiments, we distinguish between two types of incompleteness: the language comprehension system might not build a faithful syntactic structure, or it might not fully erase the structure built during an initial misparse. The first experiment used reflexive binding and the gender mismatch paradigm to show that a complete and faithful structure is built following processing of the Garden-Path. The second experiment used two-sentence texts to examine the extent to which the Garden-Path meaning from the first sentence interferes with reading of the second. Together, the results indicate that misinterpretation effects are attributable not to failure in building a proper structure, but rather to failure in cleaning up all remnants of earlier attempts to build that syntactic representation.
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Sensitivity to Syntactic Changes in Garden Path Sentences
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2008Co-Authors: Kiel ChristiansonAbstract:The results of two text-change experiments are reported. The experiments were designed to investigate the syntactic representation of Garden Path sentences such as While the man hunted the deer that was brown and graceful ran into the woods , specifically the claim that a significant number of misinterpretations of such sentences are due to incomplete syntactic reanalysis (Christianson et al. Cogn Psychol 42:368–407, 2001). In the experiments reported here, the pronoun it was added (Expt. 1) or deleted (Expt. 2) from short texts containing such sentences. Participants were more or less likely to notice both deletions and additions of it in certain syntactic contexts, as predicted by the incomplete reanalysis account. Correlations with reading times support this interpretation of the results. Overall, the data are consistent with a “good enough” view of language processing (Ferreira et al. J Psycholinguist Res 30:3–20, 2001).
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Younger and Older Adults' “Good-Enough” Interpretations of Garden-Path Sentences
Discourse processes, 2006Co-Authors: Kiel Christianson, Rose T. Zacks, Carrick C. Williams, Fernanda FerreiraAbstract:We report 3 experiments that examined younger and older adults' reliance on "good-enough" interpretations for Garden-Path sentences (e.g., "While Anna dressed the baby played in the crib") as indicated by their responding "Yes" to questions probing the initial, syntactically unlicensed interpretation (e.g., "Did Anna dress the baby?"). The manipulation of several factors expected to influence the probability of generating or maintaining the unlicensed interpretation resulted in 2 major age differences: Older adults were generally more likely to endorse the incorrect interpretation for sentences containing optionally transitive verbs (e.g., hunted, paid), and they showed decreased availability of the correct interpretation of subordinate clauses containing reflexive absolute transitive verbs (e.g., dress, bathe). These age differences may in part be linked to older adults' increased reliance on heuristic-like good-enough processing to compensate for age-related deficits in working memory capacity. The resu...
Markus Bader - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Ungrammaticality detection and Garden Path strength: Evidence for serial parsing
Language and Cognitive Processes, 2000Co-Authors: Michael Meng, Markus BaderAbstract:It is still a controversial issue whether the human sentence processor computes syntactic representations serially or in parallel. We address this question by comparing the processing of different types of ambiguous Garden Path sentences with the processing of corresponding ungrammatical sentences. The ungrammatical sentences lead to the same type of syntactic mismatch that arises in the Garden Path sentences at the point of disambiguation, but they cannot be reanalysed. Using the speeded-grammaticality judgement task it is shown that factors which regulate Garden Path strength in ambiguous sentences also have an influence on the processing of corresponding ungrammatical sentences in that they determine how reliably the ungrammaticality is detected. We argue that this processing correlation provides evidence for serial parsing models because only serial models lead us to expect that the parser attempts reanalysis in ambiguous and ungrammatical sentences alike.
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Mode of Disambiguation and Garden-Path Strength: An Investigation of Subject-Object Ambiguities in German.
Language and Speech, 2000Co-Authors: Michael Meng, Markus BaderAbstract:The results of three experiments are reported which investigated the processing of locally ambiguous object-subject sentences in German. These sentences are known to elicit Garden-Path effects because the parser initially prefers the assignment of a subject-object structure (e.g., Schriefers, Friederici, Kuhn, 1995). The aim of the experiments was to test whether the type of grammatical information that signals the Garden-Path (the mode of disambiguation)has an impact on how difficult it is to arrive at the correct structural assignment. We exploited the fact that subject-object ambiguities in German can be disambiguated in two different ways: by agreement or by case. If disambiguation concerning the relative order of subject and object is provided by the number features of the finite verb (agreement disambiguation) a robust Garden-Path effect results. In contrast, if the disambiguating information is provided by a second NP morphologically marked for nominative, the resulting Garden-Path effect is weak. ...
Ina Bornkessel - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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multi dimensional contributions to Garden Path strength dissociating phrase structure from case marking
Journal of Memory and Language, 2004Co-Authors: Ina Bornkessel, Matthias Schlesewsky, Brian Mcelree, Angela D FriedericiAbstract:Abstract Psycholinguistic investigations of reanalysis phenomena have typically focused on revisions of phrase structure. Here, we identify a further subcomponent of syntactic reanalysis, namely the revision of case marking. This aspect of reanalysis was isolated by examining German subject–object ambiguities that require a revision towards a dative-initial order. Since dative-initial orders are potentially unmarked, no phrase structure corrections are required, but the original, preference-based nominative assignment must be revised. Experiment 1, an ERP study, revealed an N400 component for reanalysis of case marking, which contrasted with a P600 component for phrase structure revisions. The ‘reanalysis N400’ was replicated in Experiment 2, which also showed that direct lexical support for a dative-initial order leads to a reduction of the effect. Finally, in Experiment 3, direct time course measures provided by the speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure supported the case reanalysis account by showing that conditions hypothesized to involve case reanalysis (dative-initial structures) require longer computation times than their nominative-initial counterparts. Lexeme-specific support for the dative-initial reading, however, does not lead to a faster computation of the target structure, but rather increases the likelihood that the correct interpretation will be computed. We interpret these findings as evidence for the general availability of an unmarked dative–nominative word order in German, the accessibility of which may be increased by lexical information. Moreover, the data show that syntactic reanalysis is not a homogeneous process, but may rather be subdivided along several dimensions that interact in determining overall Garden Path strength.
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Ungrammaticality detection and Garden Path strength: A commentary on Meng and Bader"s (2000) evidence for serial parsing
Language and Cognitive Processes, 2003Co-Authors: Matthias Schlesewsky, Ina BornkesselAbstract:We argue that the data presented by Meng and Bader (2000) and interpreted as evidence in favour of serial parsing by these authors are also naturally accounted for in a weakly interactive constraint-based parsing architecture. In this way, Meng and Bader"s “Mismatch Effect”, i.e., the observation that there appears to be a correlation between Garden Path strength and ungrammaticality detection, is reinterpreted as an epiphenomenon of constraint interaction and, thereby, as orthogonal to the serial vs. parallel parsing debate. New experimental evidence in favour of this alternative account is provided.
Michael Meng - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Ungrammaticality detection and Garden Path strength: Evidence for serial parsing
Language and Cognitive Processes, 2000Co-Authors: Michael Meng, Markus BaderAbstract:It is still a controversial issue whether the human sentence processor computes syntactic representations serially or in parallel. We address this question by comparing the processing of different types of ambiguous Garden Path sentences with the processing of corresponding ungrammatical sentences. The ungrammatical sentences lead to the same type of syntactic mismatch that arises in the Garden Path sentences at the point of disambiguation, but they cannot be reanalysed. Using the speeded-grammaticality judgement task it is shown that factors which regulate Garden Path strength in ambiguous sentences also have an influence on the processing of corresponding ungrammatical sentences in that they determine how reliably the ungrammaticality is detected. We argue that this processing correlation provides evidence for serial parsing models because only serial models lead us to expect that the parser attempts reanalysis in ambiguous and ungrammatical sentences alike.
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Mode of Disambiguation and Garden-Path Strength: An Investigation of Subject-Object Ambiguities in German.
Language and Speech, 2000Co-Authors: Michael Meng, Markus BaderAbstract:The results of three experiments are reported which investigated the processing of locally ambiguous object-subject sentences in German. These sentences are known to elicit Garden-Path effects because the parser initially prefers the assignment of a subject-object structure (e.g., Schriefers, Friederici, Kuhn, 1995). The aim of the experiments was to test whether the type of grammatical information that signals the Garden-Path (the mode of disambiguation)has an impact on how difficult it is to arrive at the correct structural assignment. We exploited the fact that subject-object ambiguities in German can be disambiguated in two different ways: by agreement or by case. If disambiguation concerning the relative order of subject and object is provided by the number features of the finite verb (agreement disambiguation) a robust Garden-Path effect results. In contrast, if the disambiguating information is provided by a second NP morphologically marked for nominative, the resulting Garden-Path effect is weak. ...
