The depth charge illusion occurs when compositionally incongruous sentences such as No detail is too unimportant to be left out are assigned plausible non-compositional meanings (Don’t leave out details). Results of two online reading and judgment experiments show that moving the incongruous degree phrase to the beginning of the sentence in German (lit. “Too unimportant to be left out is surely no detail”) results in an attenuation of this semantic illusion, implying a role for incremental processing. Two further experiments show that readers cannot consistently turn the communicated meaning of depth charge sentences into its opposite, and that acceptability varies greatly between sentences and subjects, which is consistent with superficial interpretation. A meta-analytic fit of the Wiener diffusion model to data from six experiments shows that world knowledge is a systematic driver of the illusion, leading to stable acceptability judgments. Other variables, such as sentiment polarity, influence subjects’ depth of processing. Overall, the results shed new light on the role of superficial processing on the one hand and of communicative competence on the other hand in creating the depth charge illusion. I conclude that the depth charge illusion combines aspects of being a persistent processing “bug” with aspects of being a beneficial communicative “feature”, making it a fascinating object of study.

中文翻译：

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深度电荷错觉中增量和表面处理的作用：实验和建模证据

深度炸弹错觉发生在构图不协调的句子，例如 No detail is too unimportant to be left out 被赋予似是而非的非构图意义（不要遗漏细节）。两个在线阅读和判断实验的结果表明，将不协调程度的短语移动到德语句子的开头（字面意思是“Too unimportant to be left out surely is no detail”）导致这种语义错觉减弱，暗示增量处理的作用。两个进一步的实验表明，读者不能始终如一地将深度电荷句子的传达含义转化为它的对立面，并且句子和主题之间的可接受性差异很大，这与表面解释一致。维纳扩散模型对来自六个实验的数据的元分析表明，世界知识是错觉的系统驱动因素，导致稳定的可接受性判断。其他变量，如情绪极性，影响受试者的处理深度。总的来说，结果一方面揭示了表面处理的作用，另一方面揭示了交流能力在产生深水炸弹错觉中的作用。我的结论是，深水炸弹错觉结合了持久处理“错误”和有益交际“特征”的方面，使其成为一个引人入胜的研究对象。结果一方面揭示了表面处理的作用，另一方面揭示了交流能力在产生深水炸弹错觉中的作用。我的结论是，深水炸弹错觉结合了持久处理“错误”和有益交际“特征”的方面，使其成为一个引人入胜的研究对象。结果一方面揭示了表面处理的作用，另一方面揭示了交流能力在产生深水炸弹错觉中的作用。我的结论是，深水炸弹错觉结合了持久处理“错误”和有益交际“特征”的方面，使其成为一个引人入胜的研究对象。