I do research on the psychology of language, with a focus on the on-line processes of language comprehension and production, with both adults and children. Much of my research focuses on the speaker's choice between referring expressions (e.g., 'she' vs. 'the woman'), and how listeners integrate information from a variety of sources to understand them. Speakers tend to use reduced expressions (like pronouns) when a referent is highly accessible in the context, and listeners find it easier to understand references to accessible referents. My research aims to understand how and why things become accessible, and how accessbility interacts with other constraints during reference production and comrpeehsnion.
Selected Recent Publications:
Arnold, J. E., Brown-Schmidt, S., & Trueswell, J. C. (2007). Pronoun comprehension in young children. Language and Cognitive Processes.pdf of pre-print through MetaPress
Arnold, J.E., & Griffin, Z. (2007). The Effect of Additional Characters on Choice of Referring Expression: Everyone Competes. Journal of Memory and Language.pdf of pre-print through Science Direct
Arnold, J. E., Altmann, R., Fagnano, M., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (2004). The Old and Thee, uh, New. Psychological Science. 578-582. Pdf through Blackwel l Synergy
Arnold, J. E., Wasow, T., Asudeh, A, and Alrenga, P. (2004). Avoiding Attachment Ambiguities: The Role of Constituent ordering. Journal of Memory and Language. Pdf version through Science Direct