Poster by Aviv Azar and Prof. Aya Meltzer-Asscher

Agreement attraction in Hebrew comprehension: Does verb-initial order affect attraction?

(Presented at ISCOP 2025)

Abstract:

“Agreement attraction” is a phenomenon indicating memory interference in sentence processing. It occurs in sentences such as (1), where the verb matches the features of an “attractor” noun. Such sentences, although ungrammatical, are often momentarily perceived as grammatical.

The key to the cabinets were rusty.

 Theories attempting to explain this phenomenon were based predominantly on languages with subject-verb order. The current study investigate agreement attraction in Hebrew, where the verb can precede the subject. We ran two experiments in which participants performed a speeded grammaticality judgment task, manipulating (1) WORD ORDER (the subject phrase appears before or after the verb) and (2) ATTRACTOR MATCH (the attractor matches or mismatches the verb in number). Filler sentences were grammatical. 

a. ha-minun šel ha-kadur / ha-kadurim ke-xol ha-nir'e mištanim
the-dosage of the-pill.SG / the-pills.PL probably change.PL

b. mištanim ke-xol ha-nir'e ha-minun šel ha-kadur / ha-kadurim
change.PL probably the-dosage of the-pill.SG / the-pills.PL 

We found a main effect of ATTRACTOR MATCH (p<.001), such that participants were more likely to erroneously judge the sentences as grammatical when the number of the attractor and the verb matched. There was no main effect of WORD ORDER and no interaction between the two factors. We argue for the existence of number agreement attraction in Hebrew comprehension, similar to findings in other languages. More interestingly, attraction occurs in similar rates when the subject and the attractor precede the verb, and when they follow it, calling into question cue-based memory retrieval accounts of attraction.

Congratulations!