Integrating incoming information into discourse model in Tunisian Arabic

Abstract

The endeavor of the present study is to gauge the time course of connecting incoming information to information mentioned earlier in the text that are no longer available in Working Memory (WM). Two word-byword self-paced reading experiments based on the contradiction paradigm were used. The Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) was utilized to explore participants' field-dependency. Data from 96 Tunisians reveals that reading times in the inconsistent condition were higher than the consistent condition in the post-critic region when participants were instructed to adopt the protagonist point of view. However, this difference did not reach the significance level when participants were instructed to read for mere comprehension. The results also reveal that reading times for field-dependent participants were higher than their field-independent counterparts. Thus, this study yields evidence for the dominance of local coherence over global coherence.