| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | 第1-6页 |
| Abstract | 第6-8页 |
| 摘要 | 第8-12页 |
| List of Tables | 第12页 |
| List of Figures | 第12-13页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第13-19页 |
| ·Research orientation | 第13页 |
| ·Rationale for the study | 第13-17页 |
| ·Key research questions | 第17-18页 |
| ·Contents of the remaining chapters | 第18-19页 |
| Chapter 2 Literature Review | 第19-42页 |
| ·Introduction | 第19页 |
| ·Theoretical framework | 第19-33页 |
| ·Psychological theories on attention | 第19-26页 |
| ·Focalization of attention—bottleneck theories and capacity theories | 第19-20页 |
| ·Bottleneck theories: single-channel, filter theories | 第20-22页 |
| ·Capacity theories | 第22-26页 |
| ·Summary | 第26页 |
| ·Working memory | 第26-33页 |
| ·Atkinson-Shiffrin model of human memory | 第27页 |
| ·Characteristics of working memory | 第27-29页 |
| ·Baddeley & Hitch's working memory model | 第29-30页 |
| ·Measures of working memory | 第30-32页 |
| ·Working memory capacity and language processing | 第32-33页 |
| ·Empirical studies on pronoun resolution | 第33-41页 |
| ·Introduction | 第33-34页 |
| ·The cognitive underpinnings of pronoun interpretation | 第34-36页 |
| ·Theories and empirical studies on the role of different factors in pronoun interpretation | 第36-41页 |
| ·The role of formal factors in pronoun interpretation | 第36-38页 |
| ·The role of content factors in pronoun interpretation | 第38-41页 |
| ·Summary | 第41-42页 |
| Chapter 3 Self-paced Reading Experiment | 第42-71页 |
| ·Introduction | 第42-43页 |
| ·Preparatory experiment: a rating study to decide the stereotypical words | 第43-45页 |
| ·Methods | 第43-44页 |
| ·Results | 第44-45页 |
| ·Reading materials writing | 第45-49页 |
| ·Setting independent variables | 第45-47页 |
| ·Principles of material writing | 第47-49页 |
| ·Long distance v.s.short distance | 第47-49页 |
| ·Names of celebrities | 第49页 |
| ·Experiment 1:Self-paced reading | 第49-71页 |
| ·Hypotheses and predictions | 第50-53页 |
| ·Methods | 第53-58页 |
| ·Results | 第58-70页 |
| ·Summary | 第70-71页 |
| Chapter 4 Working Memory Span Test | 第71-81页 |
| ·Experiment 2: working memory capacity test | 第71页 |
| ·Methods | 第71-73页 |
| ·Analysis and results | 第73-79页 |
| ·Statistical description of scores from the working memory span test | 第73-74页 |
| ·Correlations between working memory span and RTs of he/she | 第74-79页 |
| ·Findings and conclusion | 第79-81页 |
| Chapter 5 General Discussion and Conclusion | 第81-92页 |
| ·Introduction | 第81页 |
| ·Discussion on major findings | 第81-89页 |
| ·Which pronoun (he/she) is more likely to be overused when referring to an individual? | 第81-83页 |
| ·Does the prominence of gender information entailed in antecedent affect Chinese EFL learners' perception of the corresponding pronoun? | 第83-85页 |
| ·Does the distance between an antecedent and its corresponding pronoun play a role in increasing or decreasing English learners' processing difficulty of the pronouns? | 第85-88页 |
| ·Are there any correlation between the mixed use problem and Chinese EFL learners' working memory capacity? | 第88页 |
| ·Summary | 第88-89页 |
| ·Conclusion | 第89页 |
| ·Implications | 第89-90页 |
| ·Limitations and suggestions for further research | 第90-92页 |
| References | 第92-96页 |
| Appendices | 第96-114页 |
