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Related Experiment Videos

Selecting one among many referents in spatial situation models.

G H Bower1, M Rinck

  • 1Department of Psychology, Stanford University, California 94305-2130, USA. gordon@psych.stanford.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|February 24, 2001
PubMed
Summary
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Anaphor resolution, or understanding pronoun meaning, is affected by memory interference and spatial distance. Reading times increase when referents are further away or when similar concepts are widely scattered.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Human Memory

Background:

  • Anaphor resolution is crucial for text comprehension, involving the identification of referents for pronouns and definite noun phrases.
  • Memory variables, such as interference and spatial distance, are known to influence cognitive processes, but their specific impact on anaphor resolution requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between anaphor resolution and memory interference, specifically object-concept repetition and spatial distance.
  • To determine how the spatial arrangement of referents and the frequency of their mention impact reading times and comprehension.

Main Methods:

  • Five experiments were conducted using a self-paced, word-by-word reading paradigm.
  • Participants memorized building layouts with objects and read narratives, with reading times measured for anaphoric sentences.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Accessibility was quantified by the time taken to process sentences containing definite noun phrases referring to specific objects within rooms.

    • Main Results:

    • Increased spatial distance between an object and the reader's focus of attention significantly lengthened reading times for object names, room names, and sentence wrap-up.
    • Multiple instances of a target object increased reading time only when these instances were located in different rooms, suggesting a context-dependent interference effect.
    • These findings support an associative model of memory retrieval during text comprehension.

    Conclusions:

    • Both spatial distance and the distribution of object-concept mentions significantly impact the efficiency of anaphor resolution.
    • Interference effects are modulated by the spatial context, with scattered instances posing a greater challenge than clustered ones.
    • The study validates an associative memory model for explaining complex patterns in text comprehension and anaphor resolution.