Encoding interference effects support self-organized sentence processing

• Cue-based retrieval cannot explain encoding interference in sentence processing. An extension to cue-based can do so, and it makes reading time predictions. A self-organization-based model diverging Two self-paced experiments provide support for self-organization. According theories of comprehension, establishing the syntactic dependency between a verb grammatical subject is susceptible from other noun phrases sentence. At verb, must be retrieved memory, but non-subject nouns that are similar on dimensions relevant subject-verb agreement, like number marking, make more difficult. However, models fail account class effects, conventionally called “encoding interference,” due interference. In this paper, we implement self-organized processing provides parsimonious explanation effects than otherwise reasonable extensions could made approach. We first also present new behavioral evidence using semantic similarity manipulation two studies agreement. The results these compatible with self-organizing account. argue self-organization, which reduces all parsing fallible feature match optimization no priori distinction retrieval, unifying approach similarity-based comprehension.