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Children's and adults' processing of anomaly and implausability during reading: evidence from eye movements

Children's and adults' processing of anomaly and implausability during reading: evidence from eye movements
Children's and adults' processing of anomaly and implausability during reading: evidence from eye movements
The eye movements of 24 children and 24 adults were monitored to compare how they read sentences containing plausible, implausible, and anomalous thematic relations. In the implausible condition the incongruity occurred due to the incompatibility of two objects involved in the event denoted by the main verb. In the anomalous condition the direct object of the verb was not a possible verb argument. Adults exhibited immediate disruption with the anomalous sentences as compared to the implausible sentences as indexed by longer gaze durations on the target word. Children exhibited the same pattern of effects as adults as far as the anomalous sentences were concerned, but exhibited delayed effects of implausibility. These data indicate that while children and adults are alike in their basic thematic assignment processes during reading, children may be delayed in the efficiency with which they are able to integrate pragmatic and real-world knowledge into their discourse representation.
1747-0218
708-723
Joseph, Holly S.S.L.
199a71aa-7830-4ba1-b726-a0675f600385
Liversedge, Simon P.
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee
Blythe, Hazel I.
51835633-e40b-4e8b-ae49-ad6b2f927f4c
White, Sarah J.
6691e495-5b54-40f7-b75b-012f77e5a493
Gathercole, Susan E.
1bfa745c-0e42-4974-aeac-ca25425928a1
Rayner, Keith
15f4ff90-d631-457b-a055-3944b702ea27
Joseph, Holly S.S.L.
199a71aa-7830-4ba1-b726-a0675f600385
Liversedge, Simon P.
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee
Blythe, Hazel I.
51835633-e40b-4e8b-ae49-ad6b2f927f4c
White, Sarah J.
6691e495-5b54-40f7-b75b-012f77e5a493
Gathercole, Susan E.
1bfa745c-0e42-4974-aeac-ca25425928a1
Rayner, Keith
15f4ff90-d631-457b-a055-3944b702ea27

Joseph, Holly S.S.L., Liversedge, Simon P., Blythe, Hazel I., White, Sarah J., Gathercole, Susan E. and Rayner, Keith (2008) Children's and adults' processing of anomaly and implausability during reading: evidence from eye movements. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61 (5), 708-723. (doi:10.1080/17470210701400657).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The eye movements of 24 children and 24 adults were monitored to compare how they read sentences containing plausible, implausible, and anomalous thematic relations. In the implausible condition the incongruity occurred due to the incompatibility of two objects involved in the event denoted by the main verb. In the anomalous condition the direct object of the verb was not a possible verb argument. Adults exhibited immediate disruption with the anomalous sentences as compared to the implausible sentences as indexed by longer gaze durations on the target word. Children exhibited the same pattern of effects as adults as far as the anomalous sentences were concerned, but exhibited delayed effects of implausibility. These data indicate that while children and adults are alike in their basic thematic assignment processes during reading, children may be delayed in the efficiency with which they are able to integrate pragmatic and real-world knowledge into their discourse representation.

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Published date: May 2008

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 45875
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/45875
ISSN: 1747-0218
PURE UUID: 1b8dfd24-1564-461f-bf33-2ad087c4bd8d

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Date deposited: 16 May 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 09:14

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Contributors

Author: Holly S.S.L. Joseph
Author: Simon P. Liversedge
Author: Hazel I. Blythe
Author: Sarah J. White
Author: Susan E. Gathercole
Author: Keith Rayner

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