Situation type and situation duration, studies 1-3

Description

Other (English)

Research carried out in work package B07 of the SFB 833.

Abstract

For each of the three studies, participants read sentences on a computer screen in a word-by-word, self-paced fashion. We tested the hypothesis that event sentences will be read longer than state sentences due to their higher semantic complexity. And also that longer situations will be read longer than shorter situations. The sentences were comprised of the sentence subject followed by the copula 'werden' (event) or 'sein' (state) in inflected form and an adjective + a coordinated sentences as spill-over region starting with 'und' ('and'). The situation duration was manipulated through the subject.      

• event-short: Die Ampel wurde gelb und [restliche SPILL-OVER-Region]. 'The traffic light became yellow and [remainder of SPILL-OVER].'
• state-short: Die Ampel war gelb und [restliche SPILL-OVER-Region]. 'The traffic light became yellow and [remainder of [SPILL-OVER].'
• event-long: Das Blatt wurde gelb und [restliche SPILL-OVER-Region]. 'The leaf became yellow and [remainder of [SPILL-OVER].'
• state-long: Die Blatt war gelb und [restliche SPILL-OVER-Region]. 'The leaf became yellow and [remainder of [SPILL-OVER].'

The sentence material for all three studies was exactly the same up to the spill-over region starting with 'und' ('and'). We assumed that the spill-over region might have had influenced the overall credibility of the experiment. So we varied them per study.