Grammatical planning, execution, and control in written sentence production

Guido Nottbusch (2010)

Reading and Writing

DOI: 10.1007/s11145-009-9188-4

Abstract: In this study participants were asked to describe pictured events in one type-written sentence, containing one of two different syntactic structures (subordinated vs. coordinated subject noun phrases). According to the hypothesis, the larger subordinated structure (one noun phrase including a second, subordinated, one) should be cognitively more costly and will be planned before the start of the production, whereas the coordinated structure, consisting of two syntactically equal noun phrases, can be planned locally in an incremental fashion. The hypothesis was confirmed by the analysis of the word-initial keystroke latencies as well as the eye movements towards the stimulus, indicating a stronger tendency to incremental planning in case of the coordinated structure.