Evidence for self-organized sentence processing: digging-in effects.
Dynamical, self-organizing models of sentence processing predict "digging-in" effects: The more committed the parser becomes to a wrong syntactic choice, the harder it is to reanalyze. Experiment 1 replicates previous grammaticality judgment studies (F. Ferreira & J. M. Henderson, 1991b, 1993), revealing a deleterious effect of lengthening the ambiguous region of a garden-path sentence. The authors interpret this result as a digging-in effect. Experiment 2 finds a corresponding effect on reading times. Experiment 3 finds that making 2 wrong attachments is worse than making 1. Non-self-organizing models require multiple stipulations to predict both kinds of effects. The authors show that, under an appropriately formulated self-organizing account, both results stem from self-reinforcement of node and link activations, a feature that is needed independently. An implemented model is given.
Tabor
Whitney
W
Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. tabor@uconnvm.uconn.edu
Hutchins
Sean
S
D032882:Comprehension; D006801:Humans; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics