Anticipatory Processes in Sentence Processing

Anticipation is an essential ability for the human cognitive system to survive in its surrounding environment. The present article will review previous research on anticipatory processes in sentence processing (comprehension). I start by pointing out past research carried out with inadequate methods, then move on to reviewing recent research with relatively new, more appropriate methods, specifically, the so-called ‘visual-world’ eye-tracking paradigm, and neuropsychological techniques. I then discuss remaining unresolved issues, both methodological and theoretical. Anticipating Language? It is a well-known fact that people are capable of anticipating what will come next in the sequence of events they are encountering. For example, by observing and anticipating the trajectory of a ball, a goal keeper can adjust his/her position and successfully block a shot in a football match. Also, it is a common phenomenon that, when watching other people’s arm movements, we shift our eyes to the predicted movement and point, anticipating the full form of the movement. Thus, it seems that anticipation is almost an epiphenomenon of recognizing moving objects in various day-to-day situations. The present article investigates anticipation in language processing. Anticipation of language might be slightly less intuitive than anticipation of motion trajectory, but nevertheless, the occurrence is common enough. For example, speakers often feel their interlocutors ‘finish’ their sentences before they finish speaking. Such a phenomenon occurs particularly often when the speaker and listener share a large amount of mutual knowledge. Also skilled listeners can easily aid non-skilled speakers (e.g. toddlers, second-language learners) by completing the utterance for the speakers. For practical reasons, the focus of the present article is limited to anticipatory processes in sentence comprehension in normal native speaking adults. Ultimately, research in anticipation in language comprehension, however, should aim at a better understanding of effects of anticipation during online dialogues (in such situations as above; see Pickering and Garrod 2004, 2007). Also it is worth pointing out that understanding