Gtm. Altmann, REGRESSION-CONTINGENT ANALYSES OF EYE-MOVEMENTS DURING SENTENCE PROCESSING - REPLY TO RAYNER AND SERENO, Memory & cognition, 22(3), 1994, pp. 286-290
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.