Evidence against egocentric prediction during language comprehension
Although previous research has demonstrated that language comprehension can be egocentric, there is little evidence for egocentricity during prediction. In particular, comprehenders do not appear to predict egocentrically when the context makes it clear what the speaker is likely to refer to. But do...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231252 |
| _version_ | 1797311280338436096 |
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| author | Ruth E. Corps Fang Yang Martin J. Pickering |
| author_facet | Ruth E. Corps Fang Yang Martin J. Pickering |
| author_sort | Ruth E. Corps |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Although previous research has demonstrated that language comprehension can be egocentric, there is little evidence for egocentricity during prediction. In particular, comprehenders do not appear to predict egocentrically when the context makes it clear what the speaker is likely to refer to. But do comprehenders predict egocentrically when the context does not make it clear? We tested this hypothesis using a visual-world eye-tracking paradigm, in which participants heard sentences containing the gender-neutral pronoun They (e.g. They would like to wear…) while viewing four objects (e.g. tie, dress, drill, hairdryer). Two of these objects were plausible targets of the verb (tie and dress), and one was stereotypically compatible with the participant's gender (tie if the participant was male; dress if the participant was female). Participants rapidly fixated targets more than distractors, but there was no evidence that participants ever predicted egocentrically, fixating objects stereotypically compatible with their own gender. These findings suggest that participants do not fall back on their own egocentric perspective when predicting, even when they know that context does not make it clear what the speaker is likely to refer to. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T01:55:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e3677b12186a4fdd802e2f92cf33aa2c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T01:55:24Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-e3677b12186a4fdd802e2f92cf33aa2c2024-02-14T09:03:44ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032023-12-01101210.1098/rsos.231252Evidence against egocentric prediction during language comprehensionRuth E. Corps0Fang Yang1Martin J. Pickering2Psychology of Language Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UKDepartment of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UKAlthough previous research has demonstrated that language comprehension can be egocentric, there is little evidence for egocentricity during prediction. In particular, comprehenders do not appear to predict egocentrically when the context makes it clear what the speaker is likely to refer to. But do comprehenders predict egocentrically when the context does not make it clear? We tested this hypothesis using a visual-world eye-tracking paradigm, in which participants heard sentences containing the gender-neutral pronoun They (e.g. They would like to wear…) while viewing four objects (e.g. tie, dress, drill, hairdryer). Two of these objects were plausible targets of the verb (tie and dress), and one was stereotypically compatible with the participant's gender (tie if the participant was male; dress if the participant was female). Participants rapidly fixated targets more than distractors, but there was no evidence that participants ever predicted egocentrically, fixating objects stereotypically compatible with their own gender. These findings suggest that participants do not fall back on their own egocentric perspective when predicting, even when they know that context does not make it clear what the speaker is likely to refer to.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231252predictionperspective-takingvisual-world paradigmgender identity |
| spellingShingle | Ruth E. Corps Fang Yang Martin J. Pickering Evidence against egocentric prediction during language comprehension Royal Society Open Science prediction perspective-taking visual-world paradigm gender identity |
| title | Evidence against egocentric prediction during language comprehension |
| title_full | Evidence against egocentric prediction during language comprehension |
| title_fullStr | Evidence against egocentric prediction during language comprehension |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evidence against egocentric prediction during language comprehension |
| title_short | Evidence against egocentric prediction during language comprehension |
| title_sort | evidence against egocentric prediction during language comprehension |
| topic | prediction perspective-taking visual-world paradigm gender identity |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231252 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ruthecorps evidenceagainstegocentricpredictionduringlanguagecomprehension AT fangyang evidenceagainstegocentricpredictionduringlanguagecomprehension AT martinjpickering evidenceagainstegocentricpredictionduringlanguagecomprehension |