Effects of Lexical Frequency and Syntactic Complexity in Spoken-Language Comprehension: Evidence From the Auditory Moving-Window Technique

نویسندگان

  • Fernanda Ferreira
  • John M. Henderson
  • Michael D. Anes
  • Phillip A. Weeks
  • David K. McFarlane
چکیده

In 2 experiments, a new technique called the auditory moving window was used to investigate aspects of spoken-language processing. Participants paced their way through spoken sentences divided into word or wordlike segments, and their processing time for each segment was recorded. The 1st experiment demonstrated that high-frequency words in spoken sentences require less time to process than do low-frequency words. The 2nd experiment demonstrated that words in syntactically demanding contexts (i.e., the disambiguating word of so-called garden-path sentences) are processed longer than the same words in syntactically simpler contexts. Helpful prosodic information appeared to facilitate reanalysis of garden-path structures but did not seem to prevent the misanalysis. The implications of these findings for issues in spoken-language comprehension are discussed. The authors conclude that the auditory moving-window technique provides a useful tool for addressing largely unexplored issues in spoken-language comprehension.

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تاریخ انتشار 2004