Abstract
We examined the processing of lexical ambiguity in an eye-tracking study of children and adults in their reading of grammatically ambiguous words. Words
such as crack (ambiguous between a noun and a verb interpretation,
e.g., in crack on the wall vs. crack the nut) were embedded in sentence
contexts that biased toward either a noun reading or a verb reading or
in a neutral context. The sentences were presented to sixth graders and
normal college students with an ASL eye-tracker. Fixation durations
were measured for the target ambiguous word, the duration from the offset of the ambiguous word to the end of the sentence, and the total reading time of the whole sentence. ANOVA and regression analyses reveal
interesting differences between children and adults in the processing
of noun–verb homographs. Implications of these results are discussed
with respect to an activation-based model of ambiguity processing.
such as crack (ambiguous between a noun and a verb interpretation,
e.g., in crack on the wall vs. crack the nut) were embedded in sentence
contexts that biased toward either a noun reading or a verb reading or
in a neutral context. The sentences were presented to sixth graders and
normal college students with an ASL eye-tracker. Fixation durations
were measured for the target ambiguous word, the duration from the offset of the ambiguous word to the end of the sentence, and the total reading time of the whole sentence. ANOVA and regression analyses reveal
interesting differences between children and adults in the processing
of noun–verb homographs. Implications of these results are discussed
with respect to an activation-based model of ambiguity processing.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Not published / presented only - Nov 2003 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 44th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Duration: 6 Nov 2003 → 9 Nov 2003 https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.psychonomic.org/resource/resmgr/Annual_Meeting/Past_and_Future_Meetings/Abstracts03.pdf |
Conference
| Conference | 44th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | SCiP 2003 |
| Country/Territory | Canada |
| City | British Columbia |
| Period | 6/11/03 → 9/11/03 |
| Internet address |