Event boundaries and anaphoric reference

Abstract

The current study explored the finding that parsing a narrative into separate events impairs anaphor resolution. According to the Event Horizon Model, when a narrative event boundary is encountered, a new event model is created. Information associated with the prior event model is removed from working memory. So long as the event model containing the anaphor referent is currently being processed, this information should still be available when there is no narrative event boundary, even if reading has been disrupted by a working-memory-clearing distractor task. In those cases, readers may reactivate their prior event model, and anaphor resolution would not be affected. Alternatively, comprehension may not be as event oriented as this account suggests. Instead, any disruption of the contents of working memory during comprehension, event related or not, may be sufficient to disrupt anaphor resolution. In this case, reading comprehension would be more strongly guided by other, more basic language processing mechanisms and the event structure of the described events would play a more minor role. In the current experiments, participants were given stories to read in which we included, between the anaphor and its referent, either the presence of a narrative event boundary (Experiment 1) or a narrative event boundary along with a workingmemory-clearing distractor task (Experiment 2). The results showed that anaphor resolution was affected by narrative event boundaries but not by a working-memory-clearing distractor task. This is interpreted as being consistent with the Event Horizon Model of event cognition.

Event boundaries in memory and cognition

“…As another example, people also find it harder to resolve anaphors if the referent is in a prior event model as compared to the current one [56]. Recent work [57] has found that anaphor resolution is guided by the structure of the described events, and is only minimally influenced by extra-narrative event boundaries (such as pauses in reading).…”

Event segmentation as a working memory process.

“…As a result, any information that is part of the current event, even if it carried over from the prior event, is more available in working memory. However, information that is part of the prior event model becomes less available (e.g., Thompson & Radvansky, 2016; Zwaan, 1996). This is important because a failure to identify event boundaries properly could lead to a person inappropriately retaining information that is no longer appropriate, or failing to include new, appropriate information for the new event.…”

Examining the role of information integration in the continued influence effect using an event segmentation approach

“…This suggests that people may not necessarily construct event models based on spatial location unless it is made salient or functionally important to the task [ 74 ]. In addition, the spatial context change occurred outside the narrative environment (as opposed to within the narrative; e.g., a character changing locations) and it may be that in order for participants to perceive the boundary as relevant to the narrative there needed to be both narrative and extra-narrative spatial shifts [see 79 , for a similar argument].…”