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@sascha_wolfer@fediscience.org
2026-05-21 09:30:16

Wanna know why #psycholinguistics is so fascinating?
In a 2001 #experiment participants saw sentences like
"While Mary dressed the baby played in the crib."
Then they had to answer the question:
"Did Mary dress the baby?"
Up to 51% of all answers where "Yes!" – and participants were *very* confident about their answers.
🤯
Original paper:
Christianson, Kiel & Hollingworth, Andrew & Halliwell, John F. & Ferreira, Fernanda (2001). Thematic Roles Assigned along the Garden Path Linger. Cognitive Psychology 42(4). 368–407. DOI: doi.org/10.1006/cogp.2001.0752
Also a fascinating read:
Ferreira, Fernanda & Bailey, Karl G.D. & Ferraro, Vittoria (2002). Good-Enough Representations in Language Comprehension. Current Directions in Psychological Science 11(1). 11–15. DOI: doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00158