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Sentence Context Effects on Lexical Access

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Eye Movements and Visual Cognition

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Neuropsychology ((SSNEUROPSYCHOL))

Abstract

One of the most robust findings in the word recognition literature is that responses to words are faster when a word is preceded by a congruent context than when it is preceded by a neutral or incongruent context. For example, a word such as “treasure” would be recognized more quickly in the sentence “The pirate found the treasure,” than in the sentence “The person liked the treasure”, or worse yet, “The house was destroyed by the treasure” (e.g., Balota, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 1985; Ehrlich & Rayner, 1981; Fischler & Bloom, 1979, 1985; Foss, 1982; Schuberth, Spoehr, & Lane, 1981; Simpson, Peterson, Casteel, & Burgess, 1989; Stanovich & West, 1979). No one disputes the fact that context plays a role in the processing of individual words in a sentence.

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Authors
  1. Robin K. Morris
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Keith Rayner

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Morris, R.K. (1992). Sentence Context Effects on Lexical Access. In: Rayner, K. (eds) Eye Movements and Visual Cognition. Springer Series in Neuropsychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2852-3_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2852-3_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7696-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2852-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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