Figure 6:

Looking-time plots for Experiment 3. Proportion of looks to the target referent during neutral sentences (grey) and predictive sentences (blue) for adults (n = 24) and for children (n = 24). The onset of the target noun (e.g., apples) is at 0 ms. Vertical dashed lines indicate the average onset of the informative word in predictive sentences (e.g., eat). Neutral and predictive sentences included a color adjective (blue/red) immediately prior to the target noun, which partially narrowed the scope of reference prior to noun onset. Line shading indicates one standard error from the mean for each condition, averaged by subjects. Area shading indicates significant clusters (ps < 0.05) from permutation analyses (Maris & Oostenveld, 2007). Results indicate that adults and children generated anticipatory eye movements to the target referent during predictive sentences, but the condition effect in Experiment 3 was more attenuated relative to Experiments 1 and 2. Additional analyses suggest that listeners were primarily successful in using informative verbs to generate predictions in Experiment 3.