Verb frame preferences: Descriptive norms

This paper presents normative data about the frequency with which college students construct sentences with different syntactically defined frames for 127 English verbs. The norms are intended to be of use to experimenters in preparing materials to study sentence comprehension.     

Processing Dutch sentence structures

This paper summarizes existing research on syntactic processing of Dutch sentences by adult native speakers of the language, with an eye to the implications of this work for a general theory of the human sentence processing mechanism (HSPM). The principles underlying the assignment of phrase structure and the binding of traces seem to be the same as those proposed for languages like English or Italian. For example, no delays of analysis exist in parsing the constituents of a phrase even if the phrase is head-final. Also, the obligatory topicalization of a constituent which is required in the highest clause of a Dutch sentence does not appear to result in trace postulation principles distinct from those operative in languages where topicalization is optional. The studies reviewed also address questions concerning the complexity of the dependency between a moved constituent and its trace as measured by the length of a path vs. the length of a chain, the processing of subject gaps following an overt complementizer, the complexity of interpreting an adjunct moved from an obligatory position, and the processing of discontinuous words. Though the studies do not pose a problem for pre-existing views of the HSPM, they do highlight certain areas of parsing theory which remain seriously underdeveloped. Foremost, perhaps, is the specification of the principles governing the architecture of the processing system, which ultimately should explain how the organization of the HSPM and its subcomponents results from acquiring the grammar of any particular language.The research reported here was supported by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholin-guistics and by NIH Research Grant HD-18708 to Charles Clifton and Lyn Frazier.     

Victim attributions and post-rape trauma

This study assessed (a) the kinds of attributions victims make, (b) whether behavioral and characterological self-blame are associated with other variables as hypothesized (e.g., perception of future avoidability of being raped), and (c) whether behavioral self-blame is associated with better post-rape adjustment (Janoff-Bulman, 1979). Attributions and adjustment were assessed in a sample of adult female rape victims seen at a hospital-based rape crisis program. Many victims blamed themselves but tended to place more blame on external factors. The pattern of relations between behavioral and characterological self-blame and other attributional measures did not support the hypothesized distinctions between them. Both kinds of self-blame were significantly associated with increased post-rape depression (all ps less than .05). Attributions strongly predicted adjustment, accounting for up to 67% of the variance in 3-day post-rape depression. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

VICARIOUS TRAUMA The Effects on Female Counselors of Working with Sexual Violence Survivors

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the effects on counselors of working with sexual violence survivors. Members of a women psychologists' organization and a group of sexual violence counselors completed questionnaires regarding the extent of their work with survivors and their psychological functioning. Counselors who had a higher percentage of survivors in their caseload reported more disrupted beliefs, (particularly about the goodness of other people), more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and more self-reported vicarious trauma. Symptomatology was not related to counselors' own history of victimization. Qualitative data regarding difficult and enjoyable aspects of working with survivors also were gathered, along with data on the strategies used by counselors to cope with work-related stress. implications for counselor training are discussed.     

Evaluation of a Coeducational Interactive Rape Prevention Program

This article illustrates one way in which counselors can contribute to victim services on campus besides providing direct remedial services. Specifically, the authors describe a project in which they designed, implemented, and evaluated a rape prevention program. The program was coeducational and interactive and was presented to members of sororities and fraternities. Those who participated in the program endorsed fewer rape-supportive attitudes than did the control group immediately following the program, although the two groups no longer differed at the one month follow-up. Recommendations are provided for counselors interested in developing and evaluating similar programs.     

Making and correcting errors during sentence comprehension: Eye movements in the analysis of structurally ambiguous sentences

Eye movements were recorded as subjects read sentences containing temporary structural ambiguities. In accord with the garden-path theory of sentence comprehension, shorter reading times were found for sentences conforming to certain independently motivated parsing strategies (late closure and minimal attachment) than for comparable sentences which violate these strategies. Further, longer fixation durations were associated with the very first fixation in the region of the sentence which disambiguated the sentence, suggesting that the human sentence-parsing mechanism operates in a rather systematic fashion, immediately computing the structural consequences of fixated material for the analysis of preceding material. The pattern of regressive eye movements did not conform to the view that the parsing mechanism automatically returns to the beginning of the sentence to revise an incorrect analysis of linguistic material nor did it support the view that the parsing mechanism systematically backtracks through the sentence until the source of the erroneous analysis is located. Rather, the pattern of regressions indicated that the parsing mechanism typically engages in selective reanalysis, exploiting whatever information it has available about the type of error it has committed to guide its reanalysis attempts. Finally, it is emphasized that an understanding of the parser's revision procedures is essential to an explanation of why certain linguistic structures cannot be successfully parsed by humans.     

On Bound Variable Interpretations: The LF-Only Hypothesis

Under what conditions do perceivers prefer to assign a bound variable interpretation to a pronominal that is ambiguous between a bound variable and a coreferential interpretation? Several experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that language perceivers prefer a bound variable over a coreferential interpretation of a pronoun because the former only requires consultation of a logical form (LF) representation, while the latter requires access to a discourse representation. The hypothesis was disconfirmed in two respects. First, although bound variable interpretations show a processing advantage over coreferential interpretations in VP ellipsis constructions, the preference for bound variable interpretations is not general--it does not extend to other quantificational contexts. Second, the preference for bound variable interpretations in VP ellipsis constructions is not limited to examples in which the antecedent and the ellipsis site occur in the same sentence. If the bound variable advantage were due to the ready availability of the LF for the current sentence, the advantage should disappear across sentence boundaries. An alternative hypothesis is then considered which could explain the source of the bound variable advantage in VP ellipsis contexts.     

Processing Coordinate Structures

Coordination often involves syntactically like categories. Based on the results of four reading time studies, it is argued here that the syntactic like-category restriction is not grammatical. Coordination of unlike categories can be just as acceptable as coordination of like categories. However, syntactically like category coordination is processed faster than coordination of unlike categories even when the two sentence types are judged to be fully acceptable. Further, parallelism of conjuncts facilitates processing regardless of whether it is parallelism in the category of the conjuncts (a property which the grammar might regulate) or parallelism in the internal structure of the conjuncts (a property which the grammar does not regulate, on anyone's view). Parallelism did not facilitate processing when the structure of a subject and object were manipulated, implying that parallelism effects are largely limited to the conjuncts of a coordinate structure and not due simply to the repetition of a phrase with a particular shape.