The effect of factivity on lexical retrieval and postlexical processes during eye fixations in reading

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Abstract
Subjects were required to read short passages of text while their eye movements were monitored. Each experimental passage contained a critical factive or nonfactive verb that was followed by a false complement. In half of the trials, subjects' reading was unimpaired; in the remainder of the trial, a central visual pattern mask, which moved in synchrony with the eyes, was applied. The results showed that (1) factive and nonfactive verbs did not receive different amounts of fixation time during the reading text. However, (2) false complements that followed factive verbs received longer fixation times than identical false complements that followed nonfactive verbs. On the basis of this, it is concluded that individual word characteristics, such as factivity, are encoded automatically while sentence interpretation requires effort to be completed.

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