The use of contextual information by right brain-damaged individuals in the resolution of ambiguous pronouns

Three experiments were conducted with the primary purpose of investigating the ability of right brain-damaged (RBD) individuals to use contextual information--at the level of the single sentence, in terms of the integration of information between clauses, and at the level of a minimal discourse (i.e. two sentences)--in the resolution of ambiguous pronouns. The investigation was extended to a group of left brain-damaged (LBD) and non brain-damaged (NBD) individuals. Four additional studies investigated and found no age effects in the use of contextual information in pronoun resolution. The results of the experiments with brain-damaged subjects were contrary to initial expectations. All three experiments were consistent in demonstrating that the RBD group was influenced by contextual information in a manner similar to that demonstrated by both the LBD and NBD groups. The results are discussed in terms of the distinction between automatic and effortful processing