Online representations of non-canonical sentences are more than good-enough

Cutter, Michael G.; Paterson, Kevin B.; Filik, Ruth

Abstract

Proponents of good-enough processing suggest that readers often (mis)interpret certain sentences using fast-and-frugal heuristics, such that for non-canonical sentences (e.g., The dog was bitten by the man) people confuse the thematic roles of the nouns. We tested this theory by examining the effect of sentence canonicality on the reading of a follow-up sentence. In a self-paced reading study, 60 young and 60 older adults read an implausible sentence in either canonical (e.g., It was the peasant that executed the king) or non-canonical form (e.g., It was the king that was executed by the peasant), followed by a sentence that was implausible given a good-enough misinterpretation of the first sentence (e.g., Afterwards, the peasant rode back to the countryside) or a sentence that was implausible given a correct interpretation of the first sentence (e.g., Afterwards, the king rode back to his castle). We hypothesised that if non-canonical sentences are systematically misinterpreted, then sentence canonicality would differentially affect the reading of the two different follow-up types. Our data suggested that participants derived the same interpretations for canonical and non-canonical sentences, with no modulating effect of age group. Our findings suggest that readers do not derive an incorrect interpretation of non-canonical sentences during initial parsing, consistent with theories of misinterpretation effects that instead attribute these effects to post-interpretative processes.

Citation

Cutter, M. G., Paterson, K. B., & Filik, R. (2022). Online representations of non-canonical sentences are more than good-enough. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 75(1), 30-42. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211032043

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 20, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jun 29, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-01
• Deposit Date: May 21, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 29, 2021
• Journal: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
• Print ISSN: 1747-0218
• Electronic ISSN: 1747-0226
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 75
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 30-42
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211032043
• Keywords: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology; Physiology (medical); Physiology; General Psychology; Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology; General Medicine
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5565211
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17470218211032043