Verification of Sentences Containing Anaphoric Metaphors: An ACT-R Computational Model

In a sentence-verification experiment, Budiu and Anderson (2001) found that participants took longer to respond to sentences containing anaphoric metaphors than to corresponding sentences containing literals. We present a computational model of this experiment, based on INP, a more general ACT-R (Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) model of sentence processing that has been used to explain various other linguistic and memory phenomena (Budiu & Anderson, 2000; Budiu, 2001; Budiu & Anderson, in preparation). This model shows that metaphors take longer to be processed because their low similarity to their antecedents generates an initial failure of comprehension; that failure may be resolved through an expensive reevaluation process at the end of the sentence, in light of the supplemental information brought in by the other words in the sentence. Verification of Sentences Containing Anaphoric Metaphors: An ACT-R Computational Model Raluca Budiu (raluca@cmu.edu) John R. Anderson (ja@cmu.edu) Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213

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