Rapid prediction of verbs based on pronoun interpretation is modulated by individual differences in pronoun processing

ABSTRACT

How quickly can pronoun interpretation affect the prediction of a following verb? Readers were presented with implicit causality contexts in which a specific pronoun and following verb were predictable. N400 and reaction time results indicated that predictable verbs were facilitated relative to unpredictable verbs when following predicted pronouns, suggesting that verbal predictions were rapidly updated based on pronoun interpretation. There was also some evidence for rapid updating of verb predictions after unexpected pronouns, but this was modulated by individual differences. Some readers appear to have placed higher weight on top–down implicit causality predictions to interpret unexpected pronouns, and others on bottom–up information from the gender on the pronoun. These differences in turn affected the N400 response to expected and unexpected verbs. The results together demonstrate that pronouns can be interpreted quickly enough to affect predictions about the following word.

KEYWORDS:

• Prediction
• pronoun resolution
• N400
• implicit causality
• individual differences

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the following individuals for assistance in stimulus development and data collection: Sarah Anderson, Sean Cameron, Emily Charny, Stephanie Chen, Siena Christensen, Drew Galbraith, Oxana Kodirova, and Aaron Koroghlanian. He also would like to thank the audience at HSP 2023 as well as the anonymous reviewers for their comments and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The stimuli for this study and the data that support the findings as well as analysis scripts are openly available in OSF at http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/B2TEM

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Notes

1 A reviewer correctly notes that referring to people using both their and occupations and names (especially in uppercase letters; e.g. Midwife Crystal, Nervous Parent Jackson) is not completely naturalistic. Although this may have affected reaction times in this study, whatever effect it had is likely to have been similar across conditions. The major results are therefore unlikely to be due to this aspect of the materials.