Can Reducing Encoding Interference Improve Predictions During Sentence Processing?

Context: Previous experiments have shown that a sentence comprising of multiple nouns with similar case-markings can lead to prediction and processing difficulty in a head-final language like Hindi, but the underlying cause has not been investigated yet.

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Objective: To investigate whether increasing the distinctiveness of the nouns improved prediction during comprehension.

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Method: Sentence completion experiment

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Results: Better encoding of nouns leads to improved predictions. The results demonstrate that similarity-based interference interacts with prediction processes during sentence processing.

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Presented at:​ Sixth Annual Conference of the Association for Cognitive Science 2019, BITS Pilani Goa, India