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Updated: Feb 6, 2026
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Decomposing the Variance in Reading Comprehension to Reveal the Unique and Common Effects of Language and Decoding
Published on: October 11, 2018
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A new argument for co-active parses during language comprehension.
Brian Dillon1, Caroline Andrews1, Caren M Rotello2
1Department of Linguistics.
Summary
Human sentence comprehension may involve parallel processing, where multiple syntactic analyses occur simultaneously. This study suggests speeded judgments rely on multiple parses, supporting parallel parsing models over serial ones.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Theories of sentence comprehension debate serial versus parallel processing.
- Distinguishing between these models has faced theoretical and methodological challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether sentence processing is parallel or serial using a novel approach.
- To determine if speeded acceptability judgments are based on single or multiple syntactic analyses.
Main Methods:
- Investigated the ambiguity advantage effect in a speeded acceptability judgment task.
- Applied a signal detection theoretic approach to analyze judgment responses.
- Developed formal models to link parsing models to perceived sentence acceptability.
Main Results:
- Speeded acceptability judgments were found to be conditioned on multiple syntactic analyses of the input.
- Results provide evidence favoring parallel parsing models over serial models.
Conclusions:
- The findings support the hypothesis of coactive (parallel) parsing during language comprehension.
- This study offers a new psychophysical argument for parallel sentence processing.
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