Mouse cursor trajectories capture the flexible adaptivity of predictive sentence processing.

Kukona, Anuenue; Hasshim, Nabil

Abstract

Recent psycholinguistic findings raise fundamental questions about comprehenders’ ability to rationally adapt their predictions during sentence processing. Two mouse cursor tracking experiments (each N = 85) assessed this adaptivity by manipulating the reliability of verb-based semantic cues. In Experiment 1, predictive mouse cursor movements to targets (e.g., bike) versus distractors (e.g., kite) were measured while participants heard equal proportions of nonpredictive (e.g., “spot … the bike”), predictive (e.g., “ride … the bike”), and antipredictive (e.g., “fly … the bike”) sentences. In Experiment 2, participants heard equal proportions of nonpredictive and antipredictive sentences. Participants were observed to flexibly adapt their predictions, such that they disengaged prediction in Experiment 1 when verb-based cues were unreliable and as likely to be disconfirmed as confirmed, while they generated adapted predictions in Experiment 2 when verb-based cues were reliably disconfirmed. However, links to individual differences in cognitive control were not observed. These results are interpreted as supporting rational theoretical approaches.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 22, 2024
• Publication Date: Sep 12, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 14, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 24, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
• Print ISSN: 0278-7393
• Electronic ISSN: 1939-1285
• Publisher: American Psychological Association
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001397
• Publisher URL: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxlm0001397