Understanding Pronouns Jennifer E. Arnold University of Pennsylvania

John C. Trueswell Janet Eisenband Sarah Brown-Schmidt Jared Novick Collaborators

How are pronouns interpreted? Sarah called Janet when she got home. JANETSARAH ??? she ???

Overarching research goal: What are the cognitive mechanisms underlying our ability to understand language?  How does the human mind work?

Language is ambiguous  British Left Waffles On Falkland Islands  Enraged Cow Injures Farmer With Ax GLOBAL AMBIGUITY LOCAL (TEMPORARY) AMBIGUITY  British  British left  British left waffles  British left waffles on what to do in the Falkland Islands.

Pronouns are one type of ambiguity Clinton confessed to Gore when he asked for the truth.

What cognitive mechanisms underlie referent interpretation? –Cognitive Accessibility (Order of mention ) –Gender information  WHAT types of information are used?  WHEN does each source of information have an effect?

Cognitive Accessibility Sarah called Janet. She... JANETSARAH

Gender Information John called Janet. She... JOHNJANET

Conflicting claims about gender  THE “GENDER LAST” CLAIM: Gender information does not influence the first stage of pronoun interpretation. (Garnham et al., 1992; Gernsbacher, 1989; Greene et al., 1992)  THE “GENDER FIRST” CLAIM: Gender guides the initial interpretation of the pronoun. (Crawley et al., 1990; Ehrlich, 1980; Shillcock, 1982)

Research Question  Can gender guide the initial processes of pronoun interpretation? –STAGE models vs. INCREMENTAL model  Fix problems with earlier studies –use spoken language –use a less intrusive measure

Eyetracking Method

Talk outline  Experiment 1  Experiment 2  How do these data inform a theory of referential processing?

Experimental Task

Stimulus Design  2x2 design: –gender (same vs. different) –order of mention (1st-mention vs. 2nd-mention) Bart is taking a picture of Homer / Marge next to the Eiffel Tower. He’s / She’s holding a guide book and it looks like they’re visiting Paris.

Experimental Design  16 participants  16 items  16 fillers  3 practice

Coding responses: where did the subject look at each point in time?  at the TARGET?  at the COMPETITOR?  at OTHER?

Predictions  “GENDER-LAST”: target identification should occur easily only for first-mentioned referents  “GENDER-FIRST”: target identification should occur easily only in different-gender conditions  OR: Both Gender and Order of mention have immediate effects  target identification should occur easily in all conditions except same/ 2nd-mention

Bart is taking a picture of Marge... He’s holding a guide book,...

Bart is taking a picture of Marge... She’s holding a guide book,...

Bart is taking a picture of Homer... He’s holding a guide book,...

Bart is taking a picture of Homer... He’s holding a guide book,...

Pronoun interpretation was eventually successful

Eye Movement Results summary  More looks to target than competitor when either gender or order-of-mention helps  Equal looks to target and competitor when neither helps  Conditions different beginning 200 ms after pronoun offset  Reliable by participant means and item means

Exp. 1 Conclusions  Gender information is used immediately to constrain pronoun interpretation.  Order-of-mention is used immediately to constrain pronoun interpretation.

Experiment 2 What happens when the second- mentioned character is truly inaccessible?

Exp. 2: Stimulus Design Bart is taking a picture of Homer. He’s quickly focusing the camera, making sure the Eiffel Tower is in the background. He’s holding a guide book, and it looks like they’re visiting Paris.

Exp. 2, cont. Bart is taking a picture of Marge. He’s quickly focusing the camera, making sure the Eiffel Tower is in the background. She’s holding a guide book, and it looks like they’re visiting Paris.

Bart is taking a picture of Marge. He’s quickly focusing the camera... He’s holding a guide book,...

Bart is taking a picture of Marge. He’s quickly focusing the camera... She’s holding a guide book,...

Bart is taking a picture of Homer. He’s quickly focusing the camera... He’s holding a guide book,...

Bart is taking a picture of Homer. He’s quickly focusing the camera... He’s holding a guide book,...

Pronouns in same / 2nd-mention often mis-interpreted ***

Eye Movement Results summary  More looks to target than competitor when either gender or order-of-mention helps  More looks to competitor when neither helps  Conditions different beginning between 0 and 200 ms after pronoun offset  Reliable by participant means and item means

Exp. 2 Conclusions  Gender information is used immediately to constrain pronoun interpretation.  Order of mention is used immediately to constrain pronoun interpretation.

Why did subjects in previous studies not use gender?  Reading probe task interrupts comprehension, creating extra memory load  Rich discourse representations are difficult to establish – Probe task encourages an unnatural focus on surface form –Texts used unfamiliar, unelaborated characters

What cognitive mechanisms underlie referent interpretation?  WHAT types of information are used?  WHEN does each source of information have an effect?  HOW do different cues affect referent interpretation?

How do different cues impact referent processing? John called Janet. She... JOHN JANET Order of mention Gender

Categorical constraints Does accessibility pick a unique referent? YESNO Pick that referent Does gender pick a unique referent? YESNO

Probabilistic constraints Sarah called Janet. She... JANETSARAH

Do we have evidence for the probabilistic use of cues?  Gender and Order-of-mention are used so effectively, they could be either categorical or strong probabilistic constraints.  Post-pronominal information is used in a way that looks probabilistic.

Post-pronominal disambiguating information Bart is taking a picture of Homer... He’s holding a guide book,...

Early vs. Late disambiguation EARLY: She’s singing along with the music…”

Early vs. Late disambiguation LATE: She’s wearing a blue bathing suit…”

Did point of disambiguation make a difference?  Different-gender / 1st-mentionNO  Different-gender / 2nd-mention NO  Same-gender / 1st-mention NO  Same-gender / 2nd-mention YES

EXPERIMENT 1: Rapid use of post-pronoun info

EXPERIMENT 2: : Rapid use of post-pronoun info

 WHAT types of information are used?  WHEN does each source of information have an effect?  HOW do different constraints affect referent interpretation? What cognitive mechanisms underlie referent interpretation?  WHAT : gender, accessibility  WHEN : incrementally  HOW : probabilistically