We report three eye-movement experiments that investigated whether alternative syntactic analyses compete during
syntactic ambiguity resolution. Previous research (Traxler, Pickering, & Clifton, 1998; Van Gompel, Pickering, & Traxler, 2001) has shown that globally ambiguous sentences are easier to process than disambiguated sentences, suggesting
that competition does not explain processing difficulty. However, the disambiguation in these studies was delayed relative to the initial point of ambiguity, so they do not rule out models which claim that competition is very short-lasting.
The current experiments show that globally ambiguous sentences are easier to process than disambiguated sentences
even when the disambiguation is immediate. Furthermore, globally ambiguous sentences are no harder to process than
syntactically unambiguous sentences. We argue that the results are inconsistent with currently implemented constraint-
based competition models, and support variable-choice reanalysis models such as the unrestricted race model.
Ó 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
%0 Journal Article
%1 VanGompelEtAl2005
%A van Gompel, Roger P.G.
%A Pickering, Martin J.
%A Pearson, Jamie
%A Liversedge, Simon P.
%D 2005
%J Journal of Memory and Language
%K constraintbased article sentenceprocessing computationalpsycholinguistics ambiguityresolution
%P 284--307
%T Evidence against competition during syntactic ambiguity resolution
%V 52
%X We report three eye-movement experiments that investigated whether alternative syntactic analyses compete during
syntactic ambiguity resolution. Previous research (Traxler, Pickering, & Clifton, 1998; Van Gompel, Pickering, & Traxler, 2001) has shown that globally ambiguous sentences are easier to process than disambiguated sentences, suggesting
that competition does not explain processing difficulty. However, the disambiguation in these studies was delayed relative to the initial point of ambiguity, so they do not rule out models which claim that competition is very short-lasting.
The current experiments show that globally ambiguous sentences are easier to process than disambiguated sentences
even when the disambiguation is immediate. Furthermore, globally ambiguous sentences are no harder to process than
syntactically unambiguous sentences. We argue that the results are inconsistent with currently implemented constraint-
based competition models, and support variable-choice reanalysis models such as the unrestricted race model.
Ó 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
@article{VanGompelEtAl2005,
abstract = { We report three eye-movement experiments that investigated whether alternative syntactic analyses compete during
syntactic ambiguity resolution. Previous research (Traxler, Pickering, & Clifton, 1998; Van Gompel, Pickering, & Traxler, 2001) has shown that globally ambiguous sentences are easier to process than disambiguated sentences, suggesting
that competition does not explain processing difficulty. However, the disambiguation in these studies was delayed relative to the initial point of ambiguity, so they do not rule out models which claim that competition is very short-lasting.
The current experiments show that globally ambiguous sentences are easier to process than disambiguated sentences
even when the disambiguation is immediate. Furthermore, globally ambiguous sentences are no harder to process than
syntactically unambiguous sentences. We argue that the results are inconsistent with currently implemented constraint-
based competition models, and support variable-choice reanalysis models such as the unrestricted race model.
Ó 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
},
added-at = {2006-11-27T18:02:57.000+0100},
author = {van Gompel, Roger P.G. and Pickering, Martin J. and Pearson, Jamie and Liversedge, Simon P.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/29024f726e7b2ea29251dbe8816306005/tmalsburg},
interhash = {f0417850de65cb8e6e82b6c6fbd57dca},
intrahash = {9024f726e7b2ea29251dbe8816306005},
journal = {Journal of Memory and Language},
keywords = {constraintbased article sentenceprocessing computationalpsycholinguistics ambiguityresolution},
pages = {284--307},
timestamp = {2006-11-27T18:02:57.000+0100},
title = {Evidence against competition during syntactic ambiguity resolution},
volume = 52,
year = 2005
}