Contextual strength does not modulate the subordinate bias effect: Evidence from eye fixations and self-paced reading

Eye movements were recorded in order to examine how different sources of information—namely, meaning dominance and strength of biasing context—influence the processing of biased ambiguous words. Gaze durations were longer on ambiguous target words when the preceding context instantiated the subordinate interpretation, even with strongly biasing contexts. Identical results were obtained with a self-paced reading study. Thus, contrary to recent findings (Kellas, Martin, Yehling, Herman, & Vu, 1995), the subordinate interpretation of a biased ambiguous word was not selectively accessed even when the preceding context strongly biased that interpretation. Discrepancies between the present experiments and the Kellas et al. experiment are discussed.