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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
Published on: November 30, 2018
The role of perspective in identifying domains of reference
Daphna Heller1, Daniel Grodner, Michael K Tanenhaus
1Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA. dheller@ling.rochester.edu
Abstract:
We used the contrastive expectation associated with scalar adjectives to examine whether listeners are sensitive to the distinction between common and privileged information during real-time reference resolution. Our results show that listeners used this distinction to narrow the set of potential referents to objects with contrasts in common ground from the earliest moments. These results extend previous evidence that ground information influences real-time language processing by showing that the distinction between common and privileged information is used without being triggered by unusual circumstances.
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