Context effects and associative anaphora in reading

The general purpose of this study is to evaluate the locus and time-course of anaphoric resolution conceived as a psycholinguistic process in on-line reading. As such the anaphoric relation can be interpreted either as an occ urrent link constructed at reading time, or as the activation of a previous ly memorized association. An experimental analysis of on-line sentence comp rehension processes during reading is reported, using an infra-red eye-trac king recording. The experimental sentences included an antecedent as subjec t noun and an anaphoric expression as object noun at the end of the sentenc e, instanciating associative anaphors, Besides these controlled syntactical parameters, the semantic variable holding the anaphoric relation is the pr edictability of the anaphoric expression from the context (mainly the antec edent) through associative strength. The results indicate that associative anaphora resolution can be interpreted, in this case, as forward associativ e inferences induced by contextual constraints during reading. It is then p ossible to suggest a psycholinguistic interpretation of both Charolles' cog nitive-discursive (data-driven) and Kleiber's 'lexico-stereotypic' (concept -driven) hypotheses. These two linguistic hypotheses can correspond, psycho logically speaking, to the two main types of cognitive processes involved d uring reading. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.