When accessibility distinctions matter or don't
Divergent patterns of offline and online cataphora resolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21283675 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nayoung Kwon (0000-0003-1217-2515, University of Oregon, corresponding author), So Young Lee (0000-0002-0433-4548, Miami University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 264 |
| Pages | 106424 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Acta Psychologica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-6918 • E-ISSN: 1873-6297 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106424 |
| PMID | 41785567 |
| OpenAlex | W7133550004 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 54 |
This study investigates how cataphoric pronouns are resolved in Korean, offering new insights into the cognitive mechanisms behind referential interpretation. Using both offline (questionnaire) and online (eye-tracking) methods, we examine whether mental accessibility-based constraints consistently influence pronoun resolution across processing modes. Offline results align with Accessibility Theory (Ariel, 2001): while both null (pro) and overt pronouns show a subject antecedent preference, the bias is stronger for pro, and overt pronouns display more flexibility toward object antecedents. However, the eye-tracking data reveal a different pattern: sentences were read more quickly when the context supported a subject antecedent interpretation-regardless of pronoun type-indicating a generalized subject bias during real-time processing. Notably, the two pronoun types did not differ in the strength of this bias during online comprehension. These findings support an active search mechanism for antecedents in real-time processing but also reveal a dissociation between online and offline resolution strategies. Overall, the results indicate that accessibility distinctions guide pronoun resolution in offline interpretation, but play a more limited role during rapid online comprehension in cataphoric dependencies, where they may conflict with strong processing heuristics. By highlighting this cross-task divergence, our findings suggest that mental accessibility constraints may be interpreted differently-or weighted unequally-across processing domains
High resolution · Online and offline · Poison control · Resolution (logic) · Epilepsy research and treatment · Multimodal Machine Learning Applications · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
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| Highly cited | No |
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