The information conveyed by words in sentences
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Updated: Sep 26, 2026

Using Eye Movements to Evaluate the Cognitive Processes Involved in Text Comprehension
Published on: January 10, 2014
1Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. hale@cogsci.jhu.edu
Abstract:
A method is presented for calculating the amount of information conveyed to a hearer by a speaker emitting a sentence generated by a probabilistic grammar known to both parties. The method applies the work of Grenander (1967) to the intermediate states of a top-down parser. This allows the uncertainty about structural ambiguity to be calculated at each point in a sentence. Subtracting these values at successive points gives the information conveyed by a word in a sentence. Word-by-word information conveyed is calculated for several small probabilistic grammars, and it is suggested that the number of bits conveyed per word is a determinant of reading times and other measures of cognitive load.
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