Pronoun interpretation in reading
This research investigated the comprehension of anaphoric pronouns in reading. Chapter, I explains the importance of this feature of text processing, and reviews the relevant psychological literature. One -important feature of pronoun interpretation is the fact that antecedents vary in accessibility in response to aspects of text content and structure; antecedents which are readily acessible to pronominal reference are said to be foregrounded. The most common theoretical explanation of foregrounding is the claim that foregrounded antecedents are held in working memory. The review also shows reasons why good and poor readers might differ in sensitivity to foregrounding. Experiments 1-3 investigated the effects on foregrounding of pronoun-antecedent distance and of topical continuity. It was found that distance had no effect on ease of pronoun assignment provided the intervening sentences were closely related to the antecedent. When the intervening sentences dealt with unrelated topics, pronoun interpretation became more difficult. The working memory explanation of foregrounding was investigated in Experiments 4-5, which found no evidence that foregrounding of an antecedent facilitated recognition memory for
Whitehead, Edward Lionel
Linguistics
Pronoun interpretation in reading. This research investigated the comprehension of anaphoric pronouns in reading. Chapter, I explains the importance of this feature of text processing, and reviews the relevant psychological literature. One -important feature of pronoun interpretation is the fact that antecedents vary in accessibility in response to aspects of text content and structure; antecedents which are readily acessible to pronominal reference are said to be foregrounded. The most common theoretical explanation of foregrounding is the claim that foregrounded antecedents are held in working memory. The review also shows reasons why good and poor readers might differ in sensitivity to foregrounding. Experiments 1-3 investigated the effects on foregrounding of pronoun-antecedent distance and of topical continuity. It was found that distance had no effect on ease of pronoun assignment provided the intervening sentences were closely related to the antecedent. When the intervening sentences dealt with unrelated topics, pronoun interpretation became more difficult. The working memory explanation of foregrounding was investigated in Experiments 4-5, which found no evidence that foregrounding of an antecedent facilitated recognition memory for
pronoun interpretation reading investigate comprehension anaphoric pronoun reading explain importance feature text processing review_relevant psychological literature one_important feature pronoun interpretation fact antecedent vary accessibility response aspects text content structure antecedent readily pronominal reference say foreground common theoretical explanation foreground claim foreground antecedent hold work_memory review also_show reason good poor reader might differ sensitivity foregrounding investigated effect foreground pronoun antecedent distance topical continuity find distance effect ease pronoun assignment provide intervening sentence closely_related antecedent intervene sentence dealt unrelated topic pronoun interpretation become difficult work_memory explanation foreground investigated find evidence foreground antecedent facilitate recognition memory