Exploring Individual Differences in Recognizing Idiomatic Expressions in Context
Written language comprehension requires readers to integrate incoming information with stored mental knowledge to construct meaning. Literally plausible idiomatic expressions can activate both figurative and literal interpretations, which convey different meanings. Previous research has shown that c...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ubiquity Press
2021-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of Cognition |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.journalofcognition.org/articles/183 |
| _version_ | 1819133693265969152 |
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| author | Mesian Tilmatine Ferdy Hubers Florian Hintz |
| author_facet | Mesian Tilmatine Ferdy Hubers Florian Hintz |
| author_sort | Mesian Tilmatine |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Written language comprehension requires readers to integrate incoming information with stored mental knowledge to construct meaning. Literally plausible idiomatic expressions can activate both figurative and literal interpretations, which convey different meanings. Previous research has shown that contexts biasing the figurative or literal interpretation of an idiom can facilitate its processing. Moreover, there is evidence that processing of idiomatic expressions is subject to individual differences in linguistic knowledge and cognitive-linguistic skills. It is therefore conceivable that individuals vary in the extent to which they experience context-induced facilitation in processing idiomatic expressions. To explore the interplay between reader-related variables and contextual facilitation, we conducted a self-paced reading experiment. We recruited participants who had recently completed a battery of 33 behavioural tests measuring individual differences in linguistic knowledge, general cognitive skills and linguistic processing skills. In the present experiment, a subset of these participants read idiomatic expressions that were either presented in isolation or preceded by a figuratively or literally biasing context. We conducted analyses on the reading times of idiom-final nouns and the word thereafter (spill-over region) across the three conditions, including participants’ scores from the individual differences battery. Our results showed no main effect of the preceding context, but substantial variation between readers and variation in contextual facilitation. We encourage interested researchers to exploit the present dataset for follow-up studies on individual differences in idiom processing. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T09:51:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-81ff0b4f33204d6faf8268f28f49d85b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2514-4820 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T09:51:21Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Cognition |
| spelling | doaj.art-81ff0b4f33204d6faf8268f28f49d85b2022-12-21T18:30:22ZengUbiquity PressJournal of Cognition2514-48202021-08-014110.5334/joc.183187Exploring Individual Differences in Recognizing Idiomatic Expressions in ContextMesian Tilmatine0Ferdy Hubers1Florian Hintz2Free University Berlin, Berlin, DE; Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, NijmegenCentre for Language Studies, Radboud University, NijmegenMax Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, NijmegenWritten language comprehension requires readers to integrate incoming information with stored mental knowledge to construct meaning. Literally plausible idiomatic expressions can activate both figurative and literal interpretations, which convey different meanings. Previous research has shown that contexts biasing the figurative or literal interpretation of an idiom can facilitate its processing. Moreover, there is evidence that processing of idiomatic expressions is subject to individual differences in linguistic knowledge and cognitive-linguistic skills. It is therefore conceivable that individuals vary in the extent to which they experience context-induced facilitation in processing idiomatic expressions. To explore the interplay between reader-related variables and contextual facilitation, we conducted a self-paced reading experiment. We recruited participants who had recently completed a battery of 33 behavioural tests measuring individual differences in linguistic knowledge, general cognitive skills and linguistic processing skills. In the present experiment, a subset of these participants read idiomatic expressions that were either presented in isolation or preceded by a figuratively or literally biasing context. We conducted analyses on the reading times of idiom-final nouns and the word thereafter (spill-over region) across the three conditions, including participants’ scores from the individual differences battery. Our results showed no main effect of the preceding context, but substantial variation between readers and variation in contextual facilitation. We encourage interested researchers to exploit the present dataset for follow-up studies on individual differences in idiom processing.https://www.journalofcognition.org/articles/183idiomatic expressionsindividual differencesself-paced reading |
| spellingShingle | Mesian Tilmatine Ferdy Hubers Florian Hintz Exploring Individual Differences in Recognizing Idiomatic Expressions in Context Journal of Cognition idiomatic expressions individual differences self-paced reading |
| title | Exploring Individual Differences in Recognizing Idiomatic Expressions in Context |
| title_full | Exploring Individual Differences in Recognizing Idiomatic Expressions in Context |
| title_fullStr | Exploring Individual Differences in Recognizing Idiomatic Expressions in Context |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring Individual Differences in Recognizing Idiomatic Expressions in Context |
| title_short | Exploring Individual Differences in Recognizing Idiomatic Expressions in Context |
| title_sort | exploring individual differences in recognizing idiomatic expressions in context |
| topic | idiomatic expressions individual differences self-paced reading |
| url | https://www.journalofcognition.org/articles/183 |
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