Study indicates how people make sense of confusing
statements.
Suppose you hear someone say, “The man gave the ice cream
the child.” Does that sentence seem plausible? Or do you assume it is missing a
word? Such as: “The man gave the ice cream to the child.”
A new study by MIT researchers indicates that when we
process language, we often make these kinds of mental edits. Moreover, it
suggests that we seem to use specific strategies for making sense of confusing
information — the “noise” interfering with the signal conveyed in language, as
researchers think of it.