116 Understanding Rational Decision Making
temporal lobe (see Figure 3.4 , p. 108).^104 Structural disconnection of these two regions is associated
with syntactic impairments. Semantic analysis of both spoken and written sentences also takes place
in Broca’s area as well as the area immediately above it. The more complex the sentence, the more
these regions are activated.^105 During semantic analysis of verb information, including analysis of
the verb’s argument structure and thematic role, the perisylvian region at the juncture of the tem-
poral and parietal lobes in the left hemisphere is also activated.^106 Damage to these regions results
in impaired sentence processing.^107
Unlike syntactic and semantic analyses that take place in regions of the left hemisphere, ref-erential analysis recruits right hemispheric regions. Specifi cally, referential analysis of spoken and
written sentences recruits the right fusiform gyrus located in the lower portion of the right tem-
poral and occipital lobes,^108 as well as a region in the right frontal lobe.^109 Williams syndrome
is one neurological disorder commonly associated with the right fusiform gyrus. Its symptoms
include below-normal IQ, inability to orient oneself in space, as well as other defi cits in visuospatial
functioning.
Readers’ Comprehension
Almost all of a reader’s comprehension subprocesses concern the word they are fi xating on and
its relationship to the text that preceded it. For example, readers must spend a relatively long time
fi xating on pronouns in order to assign a referent to them.^110 As readers fi xate on each successive
word in a sentence, they try to integrate it with what they already know.^111 Thus, readers begin to
interpret a sentence even before they come to the main verb in it. When readers come to the end
of a sentence, they have to pause longer because they cannot process some syntactic information
until they have fi nished reading the whole sentence.^112
Readers use a number of strategies to ensure their interpretation of each sentence is cor-rect. As they read each new word in a sentence, they check its meaning against their current
representation of the sentence and revise their representation when necessary.^113 If readers
have trouble interpreting the meaning of a sentence because it is ambiguous, they slow down
and fixate on the each word in the sentence for a significantly longer duration.^114 Then,
just as they do for ambiguous words, readers process all possible meanings of the ambiguous
sentence.^115
Readers can clearly remember the specifi c words in a sentence only while they are processingthat sentence’s meaning.^116 Consequently, they often cannot recall the form or style in which a
sentence was presented. Instead, they only remember the meaning of the sentence.^117 In one study,
readers were asked to read sentences written either in the active or passive voice, to wait a few
minutes, and then to decide whether a test sentence was in the same voice as a previously read
sentence. None of the readers could accurately recall the voice in which the original sentence had
been written.^118
Oftentimes when readers encounter a sentence that is diffi cult to comprehend, they will para-phrase it or try to put it into their own words. Sometimes readers translate individual sentences into
scenarios, or story-like paraphrases.^119 For example, the investor who read the executive summary
of Smartphone MBA ’s business plan in Chapter 1 translated the following sentences into a scenario
in comment 3.
Sales projections for Smartphone MBA estimate a subscriber base of 40,000 for the premier
installment. [2. What’s this 40,000 for the premier installment?] Subscription sales are
expected to quadruple to 160,000 within fi ve years. [3. They say there are two million