Comparing the time-course of processing initially ambiguous and unambiguous German SVO/OVS sentences in depicted events

Publisher Summary The monitoring of eye movements in scenes containing objects has revealed that the type of visual referential context rapidly influences the initial structuring and interpretation of a concurrently presented utterance. Studies by Knoeferle, Crocker, Scheepers, and Pickering have extended this work by examining the influence of richer visual environments that contained explicitly depicted agent–action–patient events in addition to characters and objects. The Coordinated Interplay Account by Knoeferle and Crocker predicts that the time course with which a depicted event influences thematic role assignment depends on when that depicted event is identified as relevant by the utterance. Eye movements were monitored in a scene during the comprehension of German utterances that differed with respect to when they identified a relevant depicted event for thematic role assignment and structuring of the utterance. Findings confirmed the coordinated interplay account: Gaze patterns revealed differences in the time course with which a depicted event triggered thematic role assignment depending on whether that event was identified as relevant for comprehension early or late by the utterance.