Abstract
A noun that identifies an entity in a discourse becomes less accessible following an anaphoric reference to another entity. The phenomenon cannot be attributed to ad hoc strategies, memory decay, or context checking. It occurs for both common and proper nouns and for nouns that identify both characters and inanimate objects. It is stronger for nouns that identify important entities, as opposed to more peripheral ones.
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Nordlie, J., Dopkins, S. & Johnson, M. Words in a sentence become less accessible when an anaphor is resolved. Memory & Cognition 29, 355–362 (2001). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194930
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194930