English reflexives have been one of the main topics to explore intrusion
effects from structurally illicit but feature-matching attractors during
retrieval. Sturt (2003), using eye-tracking, claimed two stages of
processing reflexives. Parsers use only structural cues to retrieve
antecedents in an initial stage. Then feature-matching attractors have an
effect on processing at a later stage of processing. Bedecker & Straub
(2002), on the other hand, argue that a feature-matching attractor is
retrieved as a potential antecedent at the same time when parsers encounter
the reflexive, favoring an intrusion effect under the cue-based retrieval
theory (Lewis & Vasishth, 2005). This study mainly discusses the brain
response of the overt gender marking in reflexive processing in the absence
of any attractors and in the presence of a gender-matching attractor.