Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 5, 2026

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
Published on: November 30, 2018
Effect on comprehension of preposed versus postposed adverbial phrases
Saveria Colonna1, Michel Charolles, Laure Sarda
1UMR7023 Structures Formelles du Langage, University of Paris 8, 59-61 rue Pouchet, 75849 , Paris Cedex 17, France, saveria.colonna@univ-paris8.fr.
Abstract:
A challenge for psycholinguistics is to describe how linguistic cues influence the construction of the mental representation resulting from the comprehension of a text. In this paper, we will focus on one of these linguistic devices: the sentence-initial positioning of spatial adverbials such as In the park.... Three self-paced reading experiments were conducted to test the 'Discourse Framing Hypothesis' according to which preposed adverbials can be seen as frame builders announcing that incoming contents satisfy the same informational criterion specified by the adverbial. Our results indicate that spatial adverbials do not play the same role when they are in sentence-initial and in sentence-final position. These results are discussed in the framework of Zwaan's Event Indexing Model.
Related Concept Videos
Framing Effects
Retarders
The function of retarders is to delay the setting of concrete, and this effect can be measured using a penetration test. The retardation process involves adding...
The Availability Heuristic
Statistical Significance
Directing Effect of Substituents: ortho–para-Directing Groups
Persuasion Strategies

