Stimuli were presented in a phrase-by-phrase, non-cumulative, self-paced fashion (Just et al., 1982). Ten practice sentences were presented prior to the experimental sentences, consisting of 4 sentences in the same format as experimental sentences and 6 fillers. Participants were instructed to read each sentence for comprehension silently at a natural pace and told that there would be a comprehension question after each sentence. All trials began with a fixation point appearing in the center of the screen for 1,000 ms, followed by the first phrase. Participants pressed a button with their index finger to bring up the phrases in each sentence, and a period was presented together with the last phrase. The reading time (RT) was recorded as the time between stimulus onset and button press for each phrase. After each sentence, a comprehension question was presented. For the experimental sentences, the phrase probed the critical subject-verb integration (e.g., for the example sentences, “Who will visit?”). For the filler sentences, the comprehension questions probed other noun phrases in the sentence (e.g., for the filler sentence “The artist who feared that the publicist would cancel the exhibit quit on his own,” the comprehension question was “What might be canceled?”). Subjects were required to provide a spoken response, and speed for answering the question was measured through a voice key trigger as the time between question onset and the time when subjects start producing vocal response. The next sentence started after an inter-trial interval of 1,000 ms.