WM Load Influences the Interpretation of Referring Expressions

This paper presents a study of the effect of working memory load on the interpretation of pronouns in different discourse contexts: stories with and without a topic shift. We present a computational model (in ACT-R, Anderson, 2007) to explain how referring subjects are used and interpreted. We furthermore report on an experiment that tests predictions that follow from simulations. The results of the experiment support the model predictions that WM load only affects the interpretation of pronouns in stories with a topic shift, but not in stories without a topic shift.

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