EFFECTS OF LEXICAL FREQUENCY AND SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY IN SPOKEN-LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION - EVIDENCE FROM THE AUDITORY MOVING-WINDOW TECHNIQUE

In 2 experiments, a new technique called the auditory moving window wa s used to investigate aspects of spoken-language processing. Participa nts paced their way through spoken sentences divided into word or word like segments, and their processing time for each segment was recorded . The Ist experiment demonstrated that high-frequency words in spoken sentences require less time to process than do low-frequency words. Th e 2nd experiment demonstrated that words in syntactically demanding co ntexts (i.e., the disambiguating word of so-called garden-path sentenc es) are processed longer than the same words in syntactically simpler contexts. Helpful prosodic information appeared to facilitate reanalys is of garden-path structures but did not seem to prevent the misanalys is. The implications of these findings for issues in spoken-language c omprehension are discussed. The authors conclude that the auditory mov ing-window technique provides a useful tool for addressing largely une xplored issues in spoken-language comprehension.