Paula Luegi

University of Lisbon | UL · Laboratório de Psicolinguística - Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa

Research shows that as toddlers grow and their vocabulary expands, their ability to recognize a referent after hearing its name worsens when they encounter similar-sounding words (e.g., dog-door) or words from the same category (e.g., dog-chicken) compared to unrelated words (e.g., dog-boat). This study investigated the impact of phonological and s...

In the present study, we test whether, during reflexive pronoun resolution, structural cues guide both the language processing system and its underlying memory-based mechanisms or whether the latter might be influenced by non-structural cues as well. Specifically, we explore the inhibitory effects caused by similarity-based interference, which may...

In this study we tested, in EP and in BP, complement clauses with a null or an overt pronoun in subject position that is forced by number agreement to retrieve an antecedent within a complex subject NP in the main clause. With an eye-tracking while reading paradigm, we analysed the impact of structural position on pronoun resolution, investigating...

We report two experiments, a self-paced reading task and an off-line questionnaire, that tested if the overt subject pronoun in European Portuguese was sensitive to the animacy (animate vs. inanimate) of the antecedent in object position. We found higher reading times when the overt pronoun was forced to retrieve an inanimate antecedent compared to...

In a questionnaire study we investigate how native speakers of European Portuguese (EP) and Chinese, as well as Chinese learners of EP as second language (L2), interpret null and overt pronouns in forward and backward anaphora. Results show that EP native speakers exhibit different interpretative biases for null and overt pronominal subjects in bot...

Previous research accounting for pronoun resolution as a problem of probabilistic inference has not explored the phenomenon of adaptation, whereby the processor constantly tracks and adapts, rationally, to changes in a statistical environment. We investigate whether Brazilian (BP) and European Portuguese (EP) speakers adapt to variations in the pro...

Like other null-subject languages, European Portuguese (EP) has two types of subject pronouns (null and overt pronouns) that differ in their preferences to retrieve antecedents. Several studies have shown different syntactic and semantic biases for each pronominal form, either in EP or in other null-subject languages. The findings have been explain...

This study aims to connect data from ocular movements and reading aloud to the syntactic and discursive properties of texts, in order to understand integrative cognitive processes during reading for understanding. Assuming that in reading aloud there is a close interaction between syntax structure and speech prosody, we collected eyetracking and sp...

Pseudo-relative (PR) clauses have been argued to underlie high attachment (HA) preferences in RC-attachment ambiguities. PRs are possible with perception verbs which create the anticipation of a perceivable event. They demand the relative clause and the matrix clause being in the same time frame. Availability of PRs varies across languages but also...

Co-reference is affected by the availability of pronominal forms in the language, but the interaction of language-based (global) exposure and (local) exposure, e.g., during experiments, is still unclear. We addressed this issue in questionnaires with Overt and Null pronouns in Portuguese sentences like The photographer greeted the journalist when h...

Reading processes have been studied in a psycho and neurolinguistic perspective and a lot is known about what is involved (Perfetti, 1999). Interrelated processes and behaviors in reading have been separately studied in silent reading and reading aloud. The data dependent on reading modality inform us in different ways about online linguistic proce...

This study aims to connect data from ocular movements and reading aloud to the syntactic and discursive properties of texts, in order to understand integrative cognitive processes during reading for understanding. Assuming that in reading aloud there is a close interaction between syntax structure and speech prosody, we collected eyetracking and sp...

Resumo – Retomaremos o trabalho de Luegi (2006) para descrever e comentar a técnica de registo dos comportamentos oculares (eye-tracking) como uma das várias metodologias que permitem estudar os mecanismos cognitivos envolvidos no processamento da linguagem. Neste artigo, descrevemos as principais características dos comportamentos oculares durante...

Neste estudo, analisamos o processamento e a interpretação de sujeitos nulos e plenos em PE e em PB na retoma de antecedentes que ocupam diferentes posições estruturais. Resultados: função sintática e posição estrutural influenciam a resolução da correferência em PE; em PB, o nulo é mais facilmente interpretado como correferente com o Sujeito ou co...

Dado que a informação é, hoje em dia, significativa mente e em múltiplos contextos, veiculada de forma multimédia, a análise da recuperação da informação visualizada e do registo do movimento dos olhos em tarefas de observação pode fornecer informações relevantes sobre a interacção registada entre os diferentes meios de representação utilizados, no...

In this study we evaluate processing costs of different types of anaphoric expressions during reading. We consider three types of anaphoric expressions in Subject sentential position: a null pronoun (pro), and two gaps produced by syntactic movement: a WH-variable and a NP copy. Given that coreferential pro exhibits more referential weight than wh-...

Taking into account the study of Luegi (2006), where eye movements of 20 Portuguese university students while reading text passages were analyzed, in this article we discuss some methodological issues concerning eye tracking measures to evaluate reading difficulties. Relating syntactic complexity, grammaticality and ambiguity to eye movements, we w...