REGRESSION-CONTINGENT ANALYSES OF EYE-MOVEMENTS DURING SENTENCE PROCESSING - REPLY TO RAYNER AND SERENO

Altmann, Garnham, and Dennis (1992) explored contextual influences on syntactic ambiguity resolution by monitoring eye movements during read ing. In order to resolve a conflict of interpretation given that the d ifferent eye movement measures yielded different patterns, we introduc ed a regression-contingent analysis of reading times, separating trial s according to whether the eyes departed from the region of interest w ith a leftward (regressive) or rightward movement. Rayner and Sereno ( 1994) argue that various assumptions which they claim underlie the mot ivation for introducing the regression-contingent measure are in fact flawed. In this paper I demonstrate that these assumptions are incorre ctly ascribed to us (while agreeing that they are incorrect), and that Rayner and Sereno's re-analysis of an earlier study by Rayner, Garrod , and Perfetti (1992) neither questions nor threatens the generalizabi lity of the regression-contingent measure. Finally, I discuss some of the uncertainties surrounding the interpretation of first-pass reading times which further motivate the measure we adopted in Altmann et al. 's (1992) study.