title: How gender-expectancy affects the processing of "them".
abstract: How sensitive is pronoun processing to expectancies based on real-world knowledge and language usage? The current study links research on the integration of gender stereotypes and number-mismatch to explore this question. It focuses on the use of them to refer to antecedents of different levels of gender-expectancy (low-cyclist, high-mechanic, known-spokeswoman). In a rating task, them is considered increasingly unnatural with greater gender-expectancy. However, participants might not be able to differentiate high-expectancy and gender-known antecedents online because they initially search for plural antecedents (e.g., Sanford & Filik), and they make all-or-nothing gender inferences. An eye-tracking study reveals early differences in the processing of them with antecedents of high gender-expectancy compared with gender-known antecedents. This suggests that participants have rapid access to the expected gender of the antecedent and the level of that expectancy.
authors.affiliation: a University of Derby Online Learning, Enterprise Centre, University of Derby , Derby , UK.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Doherty
authors.affiliation: b School of English Studies , University of Nottingham , Nottingham , UK.
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Conklin
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012660:Semantics; D013240:Stereotyping; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities
keywords: Gender agreement; Language usage; Number agreement; Pronoun; Stereotypical gender