Cloze, Frequency, Surprisal, or Plausibility? A Comparative Analysis of Predictors for Local Ambiguity Resolution

This study investigated the cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of gardenpath sentences by examining the influence of verb bias (frequency), contextual bias (cloze scores), surprisal, and plausibility. Using self-paced reading with yes/no comprehension questions, we analyzed a structurally diverse set of eleven types of ambiguous and unambiguous sentences. Our results revealed that contextual bias was the most robust predictor of processing difficulty, significantly influencing both reaction times and response accuracy. Specifically, the likelihood of a misanalysis, as indexed by cloze scores, predicted the persistence of incorrect interpretations and reanalysis difficulty. In contrast, verb bias, surprisal, and plausibility exerted weaker or inconsistent effects, with only plausibility showing a limited interaction in the accuracy data. These findings suggest that comprehenders rely heavily on contextual cues when interpreting syntactically ambiguous input, and that reanalysis success depends not solely on structural preferences or lexical predictability but on the overall likelihood of the initial misanalysis and of the intended interpretation.