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Main Authors: Ceháková, Markéta, Chromý, Jan
Format: Recurso digital
Language:Czech
Published: Zenodo 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.70208
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author Ceháková, Markéta
Chromý, Jan
author_facet Ceháková, Markéta
Chromý, Jan
contents <p>This study investigated the cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of garden-path sentences by examining the influence of verb/structural bias, cloze probability, surprisal, and plausibility. Using self-paced reading with yes/no comprehension questions, we analyzed a structurally diverse set of 11 types of ambiguous and unambiguous sentences. Our results revealed that cloze probability was the most robust predictor of processing difficulty, significantly influencing both reaction times and response accuracy. Specifically, the likelihood of a misanalysis, as indexed by cloze scores, predicted the persistence of incorrect interpretations and reanalysis difficulty. In contrast, verb bias, surprisal, and plausibility exerted weaker or inconsistent effects, with only plausibility showing a limited interaction in the accuracy data. These findings suggest that comprehenders rely heavily on contextual cues when interpreting syntactically ambiguous input, and that reanalysis success depends not solely on structural preferences or lexical predictability but on the overall likelihood of the initial misanalysis and of the intended interpretation.</p>
format Recurso digital
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institution Zenodo
language ces
publishDate 2026
publisher Zenodo
record_format zenodo
spellingShingle Cloze, Frequency, Surprisal, or Plausibility? A Comparative Analysis of Predictors for Local Ambiguity Resolution (paper)
Ceháková, Markéta
Chromý, Jan
psycholinguistics
garden-path sentences
reanalysis
surprisal
plausibility
structural bias
self-paced reading
<p>This study investigated the cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of garden-path sentences by examining the influence of verb/structural bias, cloze probability, surprisal, and plausibility. Using self-paced reading with yes/no comprehension questions, we analyzed a structurally diverse set of 11 types of ambiguous and unambiguous sentences. Our results revealed that cloze probability was the most robust predictor of processing difficulty, significantly influencing both reaction times and response accuracy. Specifically, the likelihood of a misanalysis, as indexed by cloze scores, predicted the persistence of incorrect interpretations and reanalysis difficulty. In contrast, verb bias, surprisal, and plausibility exerted weaker or inconsistent effects, with only plausibility showing a limited interaction in the accuracy data. These findings suggest that comprehenders rely heavily on contextual cues when interpreting syntactically ambiguous input, and that reanalysis success depends not solely on structural preferences or lexical predictability but on the overall likelihood of the initial misanalysis and of the intended interpretation.</p>
title Cloze, Frequency, Surprisal, or Plausibility? A Comparative Analysis of Predictors for Local Ambiguity Resolution (paper)
topic psycholinguistics
garden-path sentences
reanalysis
surprisal
plausibility
structural bias
self-paced reading
url https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.70208