Processing discourse roles in scripted narratives: The influences of context and world knowledge

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Abstract

Discourse context may affect comprehension of a word in a text by facilitating lexical access or by facilitating integration of the target concept with the preceding text. In two experiments, we used eye tracking measures to examine contextual influence on the integration of role fillers in scripted narratives. In both experiments, context had an early influence on integration of role fillers. However, measures of post-target processing indicated that semantic knowledge continued to influence integration. The results are discussed in terms of several theories of contextual influence on reading. The data appear to support a two-stage model of processing: in the first stage, incoming text is linked to the contents of active memory; in the second stage, the link between the new and old information is evaluated.

Section snippets

Experiment 1

The passage in Table 1 illustrates the two factors manipulated in Experiment 1. Note that there are two encounters between the protagonists and an individual filling the role of a performer. Our primary interest in this experiment was in participants’ eye movements while they processed the second encounter. The action described there (e.g., playing a song) is carried out either by an individual appropriate to the scripted role (the audience listened to the guitarist, A2) or by someone

Experiment 2

One purpose of Experiment 2 was to replicate the effects of first-encounter appropriateness on first pass times on the target, in addition to examining the appropriateness effect on other measures. In Experiment 1, the first encounter with the target word occurred at the end of a sentence. Because of this, we could not be certain that any measures of post-target processing (e.g., post-target first pass times, regressions to the target, second pass times on the target) were not confounded with

General discussion

In Experiment 1, participants read script-based stories in which some individual or object filled a scriptal role in an inappropriate or unexpected way. When the inappropriate role filler had not been encountered previously in the story, first pass times in the target and post-target regions, and second pass times on the target, were longer for the inappropriate than for an appropriate role filler, and there were more regressions to the target region in the inappropriate condition. The same

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    Portions of this research were completed while Anne Cook was supported by NIMH Training Grant MH16745 awarded to the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts. Additional support was provided by a University of Utah Research Committee grant awarded to Anne Cook. We would like to thank Chuck Clifton and Keith Rayner for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

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