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Word selection in reading sentences: preceding versus following contexts
M C Potter1, D Stiefbold, A Moryadas
1Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139, USA. molly@psyche.mit.edu
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|January 24, 1998
Summary
Researchers developed a double-word selection task to study lexical ambiguity during rapid sentence reading. Participants accurately chose the correct word, supporting a two-stage model of word perception.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Human Information Processing
Background:
- Lexical ambiguity resolution is crucial for sentence comprehension.
- Previous models of word perception did not fully account for dynamic selection processes.
- Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) offers a method to study immediate processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and validate a novel "double-word selection" task.
- To investigate how readers resolve lexical ambiguity under time constraints.
- To test the predictions of a two-stage modular interactive model of word perception.
Main Methods:
- Utilized rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) to display sentences at speeds of 133 or 150 ms/word.
- Presented ambiguous "double-word" pairs for durations under 100 ms.
- Assessed immediate sentence recall and word reporting accuracy across varied contextual delays.
Main Results:
- Participants demonstrated high accuracy in selecting the correct word in the double-word pair, especially when context preceded the ambiguity.
- Contextual information, even when delayed, aided in disambiguation.
- Both words in the ambiguous pair were often recalled when processing was halted shortly after.
Conclusions:
- The double-word selection task effectively simulates lexical ambiguity during reading.
- Findings support and extend the two-stage modular interactive model to include word selection and disambiguation.
- The model accurately predicts human performance in resolving lexical ambiguity in rapid sentence processing.
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