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Abstract:
This project used headmounted eyetracking to examine the time
course and nature of processing filler-gap relations in
wh-questions, and the role of pertinent verb argument frame
information In the past, studies of gap filling have been carried
out using indirect measures such as reading times, stop making
sense judgments, and priming tasks. The current methodology differs
from these in that it has the power to offer direct explanation for
filled gap effects. That is, while a reading time study may tell us
that an unexpectedly filled gap takes longer to read than its
unfilled equivalent, eye tracking offers insight into what types of
processes were taking place to cause the lag. In addition, eye
tracking provides a continuous sampling of data over time, allowing
for a richer interpretation of precisely when various processes
come into play. Furthermore, the eyetracking methodology can be
extended to a wider variety of subjects than can previous methods.
Using eyetracking, it becomes feasible to study gap-filling
processes in populations of young children or aphasics, providing a
window to developmental and pathology related issues that have not
yet been accessible for study.
Subjects were asked to listen to a short narrative and then
answer a question related to the information they had just heard.
Throughout this process, subjects viewed a display containing
pictures of entities mentioned in the story while their eye
movements were recorded. At the end of the story, subjects were
asked to answer an auditorily presented question; eye movements in
response to these target questions were of interest. The study
addressed two basic points: 1) Can we see evidence of attempts to
anticipate gap sites in constructions containing an overt WH
filler? And 2) Do subjects use verb-based information to guide
their anticipation of possible gap sites? To address the first
question, we included one condition in which subjects heard
wh-questions with transitive verbs where the direct object slot was
filled by an overt NP and the fronted WH word corresponded to a
site further downstream. (e.g. What did Jody squash a spider with?
) This was contrasted with a yes/no question condition where the
sentence contained no gap (e.g.. Did Jody squash a spider with her
shoe? ). Subjects exhibited the expected tendency to posit gap
sites after transitive verbs when a fronted wh-word indicated that
a gap needed to be found. This tendency was played out by subjects
looking earlier and more often to the object that corresponded to
the object of the verb (e.g. the spider) for the wh-questions than
the yes/no questions. Striking evidence of the timing of
anticipation of the gap site was seen in the short latencies of eye
movements to this object in the wh-questions, indicating the eye
movement was typically being planned towards the end of the
transitive verb.
To address question 2), we included a second manipulation in
which a wh-question containing a strongly transitive verb used
intransitively (e.g. Who did the mother bear kill for?) was
compared to a question that contained a highly intransitive verb,
but was otherwise identical to its counterpart ( e.g. Who did the
mother bear die for? ). Results indicated that for questions
containing preferred transitive verbs, subjects briefly anticipated
a direct object gap, as evident by the greater number of looks to
the potential direct object referent of the verb (e.g. a hunter).
This interference resulted in longer latencies for eye movements to
the correct target object (e.g. a baby bear) for the transitive
verb questions compared with the intransitive verb questions.
These results are consistent with findings that gap-filling
processes anticipate gap positions, and can use verb information to
do so. Additionally, these results are in line with findings from
earlier work on the same phenomena, which supports the view that
eyetracking is in fact a viable way to study filled gap
effects.
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