Richard J. Gerrig

Contextual influences on the comprehension of complex concepts

Abstract Four experiments demonstrated that the comprehension of novel compound nouns involves the recognition of a general relationship between two categories. Experiment 1 found that reading time is not impaired when a story only implicitly gives the relation underlying a compound noun. Experiment 2 demonstrated that comprehension of both explicit and implicit compounds allows swift and accurate verification of their meanings in a delayed recognition teSt Experiment 3 showed that interpreting both explicit and implicit compounds facilitates later comprehension relying on that interpretation. Experiment 4 found that comprehension of a novel compound facilitates processing of a second compound that shares a similar categorical relation, even when there is no lexical overlap.

The time course of sense creation

In everyday conversation listeners often need to create new meanings for old words. For example, listeners must create the meaning “uniformed police officers” for the worduniforms in the utterance,“There are 20,000 uniforms in this city.” For such meanings, the process ofsense ereation must operate to supplement ordinary sense selection. The present experiments contrast two models of the time course of these processes. Theerror recovery model suggests that sense creation operates only after sense selection fails. Theconcurrent processing model suggests that sense selection and sense creation operate simultaneously.Preempting innovations-novel terms identical in form to conventional terms, such asuniforms-provide the means to contrast the models. The experiments demonstrate that the concurrent processing model gives a more accurate description of comprehension.

Suspense in the absence of uncertainty

Abstract Anomalous suspense arises when people express uncertainty with respect to outcomes about which they have certain knowledge. In three experiments, we demonstrate that readers can be made uncertain about whether, for example, George Washington was elected first president of the United States, when an obstacle to this well-known outcome is introduced in a short story. Experiment 1 demonstrated impaired verification of such statements when the test came immediately after suspense was created. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated prolonged verification times across a brief delay. Experiment 3 also showed that the effect could be eliminated when suspense was resolved. We argue that these results impose a limit on the types of prior knowledge used in discourse processing.

Empirical constraints on computational theories of metaphor: Comments on Indurkhya ☆

The goal of developing a computational theory of metaphor is an admirable one (Indurkhya, 1986, 1987). Such a theory, however, is adequate only to the extent that it can be embedded into a more comprehensive account of language processing. Empirical investigations have provided some important constraints on how the comprehension and evaluation of metaphorical language may fit into this grander scheme. My goal for these brief comments is to describe three constraints and illustrate their consequences both concretely for Indurkhya’s theory and more abstractly for other possible computational models. The three sections of this commentary discuss issues of metaphor processing that are highlighted by Indurkhya’s work.

Process and products of lexical access

Abstract Theories of lexical access are generally concerned with the process of access and not with the information, or products, recovered when this process is accomplished. An analysis of the products of access suggests two criteria for theories of comprehension. First, a theory must specify what information belongs in the mental lexicon. Second, a theory must indicate what part of this information is ordinarily made available by the access process. A brief examination of alternative theories of comprehension exposes flaws that are due to inattention to these issues.

Disambiguation by community membership

To interpret utterances in conversations, listeners must often make reference to the common ground they share with speakers. For example, when faced with an utterance such as “That game was a disaster,” listeners must decide whether they share common assumptions about what out-come would be disastrous. In our experiments, we examine how common ground, as encoded in community membership, is used to constrain judgments about the interpretations of ambiguous utterances. In Experiment 1, subjects were sensitive to community membership when they were asked to evaluate the interpretations at a leisurely pace. Experiment 2 replicated this result with greater time pressure. Experiment 3 demonstrated that judgments based on assessments of community membership were equivalent to those based on certain knowledge, except when the judgments were challenged. The results suggest that models of memory retrieval during language comprehension should make mention of access to common ground.

Language and Thought

Publisher Summary The proposition that the course of language acquisition is constrained in some ways by the cognitive preparedness of the child is widely accepted. Because some of the distinctions languages require are beyond childrens understanding at the chronological moment at which they begin to acquire language, language development must often await cognitive development. All other things being equal, the order in which children acquire the formal devices of their language will be highly correlated with the complexity of the concepts those devices encode. It is likely that cognitive development has a more profound impact on language development than the other way around. This chapter provides an overview of the effects of thought on language and language on thought. In almost every instance, the impact of thought on language has been supported by abundant data. However, the potential effect of language on thought has proven to be among the more troubled areas of psychological research.

Names and the construction of identity: Evidence from Toni Morrison's Tar Baby

Abstract We argue that the processes of naming and being named contribute critically to the construction of self-identity. Toni Morrisons novel Tar Baby provides a rich source of data to assess this claim. We begin by examining names in the common ground of individuals and of communities. We then consider how names are the tools by which human categories are created. We provide an information processing analysis of the mechanisms of naming effects through a discussion of the functions served by concepts and the schematic basis of using names to construct social reality.