Cross-Age Comparisons Reveal Multiple Strategies for Lexical Ambiguity Resolution during Natural Reading

Autor/inn/en	Stites, Mallory C.; Federmeier, Kara D.; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A. L.
Titel	Cross-Age Comparisons Reveal Multiple Strategies for Lexical Ambiguity Resolution during Natural Reading
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39 (2013) 6, S.1823-1841 (19 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0278-7393
DOI	10.1037/a0032860
Schlagwörter	Ambiguity (Semantics); Lexicology; Older Adults; Generational Differences; Investigations; Syntax; Young Adults; Eye Movements; Protocol Analysis; Reading Fluency; Verbal Communication; Reading Strategies; Individual Differences; Nouns; Verbs; Cognitive Structures; College Students; Short Term Memory; Stimuli; Neuropsychology; Word Recognition; Sentence Structure; Time Factors (Learning); Time on Task; Regression (Statistics); Illinois + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Lexikologie; Älterer Erwachsener; Untersuchung; Young adult; Junger Erwachsener; Augenbewegung; Reading strategy; Leselernstufe; Lesetechnik; Individueller Unterschied; Cognitive structure; Kognitive Struktur; Collegestudent; Kurzzeitgedächtnis; Anreizsystem; Neuropsychologie; Worterkennung; Satzbau; Satzstruktur; Zeitaufwand; Regression; Regressionsanalyse
Abstract	Eye tracking was used to investigate how younger and older (60 or more years) adults use syntactic and semantic information to disambiguate noun/verb (NV) homographs (e.g., "park"). In event-related potential (ERP) work using the same materials, Lee and Federmeier (2009, 2011) found that young adults elicited a sustained frontal negativity to NV homographs when only syntactic cues were available (i.e., in syntactic prose); this effect was eliminated by semantic constraints. The negativity was only present in older adults with high verbal fluency. The current study shows parallel findings: Young adults exhibit inflated first fixation durations to NV homographs in syntactic prose, but not semantically congruent sentences. This effect is absent in older adults as a group. Verbal fluency modulates the effect in both age groups: High fluency is associated with larger first fixation effects in syntactic prose. Older, but not younger, adults also show significantly increased rereading of the NV homographs in syntactic prose. Verbal fluency modulates this effect as well: High fluency is associated with a reduced tendency to reread, regardless of age. This relationship suggests a trade-off between initial and downstream processing costs for ambiguity during natural reading. Together the eye-tracking and ERP data suggest that effortful meaning selection recruits mechanisms important for suppressing contextually inappropriate meanings, which also slow eye movements. Efficacy of frontotemporal circuitry, as captured by verbal fluency, predicts the success of engaging these mechanisms in both young and older adults. Failure to recruit these processes requires compensatory rereading or leads to comprehension failures (Lee & Federmeier, 2012). (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01