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Anaphor resolution as a function of spatial distance and priming: exploring the spatial distance effect in situation
1Department of Psychology, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. dutke@rhrk.uni-kl.de
Experimental Psychology
|November 1, 2003
Summary
Spatial distance impacts anaphor resolution, influencing how readers understand text. This study confirms spatial distance effects in situation models, even when text priming is stronger.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Anaphor resolution is crucial for text comprehension.
- The spatial distance effect suggests situation models are spatially organized.
- Spatial distance may influence anaphor resolution more than text priming.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the spatial distance effect on anaphor resolution.
- To compare the influence of spatial distance versus text priming on anaphor resolution.
- To examine the reliability of the spatial distance effect in text comprehension.
Main Methods:
- Participants read short narratives involving protagonists moving within a building.
- Anaphor resolution was measured in relation to spatial distance and text priming.
- Three experiments were conducted with adult participants.
Main Results:
- Mentioning referent locations facilitated anaphor resolution.
- Decreased spatial distance consistently improved anaphor resolution.
- Spatial distance effects persisted even when text priming was stronger.
Conclusions:
- The spatial distance effect is reliable in text comprehension.
- Spatial distance plays a significant role in anaphor resolution.
- Understanding the interaction of representational levels is key to text comprehension theories.