This paper reviews recent research on the
interplay between language comprehension
processes, attention to relevant objects
and events, and the use of scene
information for comprehension. It discusses,
in particular, claims that information
from scene events is prioritized over
stereotypical thematic role knowledge during
comprehension, and claims regarding
a close temporal coordination between
comprehension, visual attention, and the
use of scene information. The discussion
takes into account findings from different
modalities (spoken comprehension
versus reading), as well as insights regarding
the decay of recently inspected scene
information that is no longer present during
language comprehension. We consider
the implications of these findings for
a recently proposed account of the coordinated
interplay between utterance processing,
attention, and the rapid use of scene
information during comprehension.