Negated concepts interfere with anaphor resolution
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William H. Levine
Abstract
Across three experiments, we studied whether the mental representations of negated concepts are suppressed. In two reading-time experiments, we tested whether the presence of a negated nonreferent distractor (e.g., Justin bought a mango but not an apple. He ate the fruit.) interfered with the process of anaphor resolution. We found evidence that highly-typical category exemplars (e.g., apple) in the negated nonreferent role interfere with anaphor comprehension; evidence regarding less-typical category exemplars was mixed. In a third experiment, participants read brief passages like those from the prior experiments and their memory for the category exemplars was tested in a surprise cued-recall task. Once again, we found evidence that negated nonreferents are considered during anaphor resolution. These results are inconsistent with a theoretical perspective that posits that negation of a concept obligatorily leads to suppression of that concept. Instead, we argue that the comprehension of negation will be dictated by its pragmatic role.
© 2008 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin
Articles in the same Issue
- Preface: Discourse negation — costs and effects
- Context effects on the spontaneous production of negation
- Comprehending negation: A study with adults diagnosed with high functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome
- Accessibility of negated constituents in reading and listening
- Negated concepts interfere with anaphor resolution
- How can you compare! On negated comparisons as comparisons
- The meaning of negated adjectives
- Contributors to this issue
Articles in the same Issue
- Preface: Discourse negation — costs and effects
- Context effects on the spontaneous production of negation
- Comprehending negation: A study with adults diagnosed with high functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome
- Accessibility of negated constituents in reading and listening
- Negated concepts interfere with anaphor resolution
- How can you compare! On negated comparisons as comparisons
- The meaning of negated adjectives
- Contributors to this issue
