Cue-dependent interference in comprehension

The role of interference as a primary determinant of forgetting in memory has long been accepted, however its role as a contributor to poor comprehension is just beginning to be understood. The current paper reports two studies, in which speed-accuracy tradeoff and eye-tracking methodologies were used with the same materials to provide converging evidence for the role of syntactic and semantic cues as mediators of both proactive (PI) and retroactive interference (RI) during comprehension. Consistent with previous work (e.g., Van Dyke & Lewis, 2003), we found that syntactic constraints at the retrieval site are among the cues that drive retrieval in comprehension, and that these constraints effectively limit interference from potential distractors with semantic/pragmatic properties in common with the target constituent. The data are discussed in terms of a cue-overload account, in which interference both arises from and is mediated through a direct-access retrieval mechanism that utilizes a linear, weighted cue-combinatoric scheme.

► Cue-based retrieval mechanisms support language comprehension.
► Interference is a primary constraint on cue-based retrieval.
► Interference affects the probability of accessing constituents, but not the speed.
► Both syntactic and semantic cues are utilized, and are combined linearly.
► Syntactic cues are given greater weight in linear combination than semantic cues.