ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

›› 1994, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (02): 113-120.

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THE ADVANTAGE OF ACCESSIBILITY OF FIRST-MENTIONED PARTICIPANTS IN CHINESE SENTENCES

Chen Yongming;Cui Yao(Institute of Psychology, Academia Sinica,100012)   

  • Published:1994-06-25 Online:1994-06-25

Abstract: The relations between mentioned order and accessibility of Chinese sentence constituents was explored. Five experiments were conducted and the results were demonstrated as follows:(1) first-mentioned participants were easier to be accessed than second-mentioned participants, mentioned order obviously affected accessibility of the participants.(2) The advantage of first-mentioned participants was relevant to the way of sentence presentation. When the words of the sentence were presented in a sequential way, there was no obvious difference of accessibility between first-and second-mentioned participants or the difference was not very obvious; when the sentence was presented in a simultaneous way. this advantage of first-mentioned participants was very obvious.(3) Under the condition of sequential presentation, the advantage of first-mentioned participants was dependent on the interval between each sentence and its probe word.(4) Under the condition of sequential presentation subjects responded to noun-participants faster than to name-participants, and they responded to patient-participants faster than agent-participants, but this difference disappeared under simultaneous presentation.(5) The order of mention had effect not only on accessibility of sentence participants, but also on accessibility of participants action; first-mentioned action was more accessible.

Key words: comprehension of language, structure building framwork, mental representation, mentioned order, accessilbility