In situated communication, reference to an entity in the shared visual context can be established using either an expression that conveys precise (minimally specified) or redundant (over-specified) information. There is, however, a long-lasting debate in psycholinguistics concerning whether the latter hinders referential processing. We present evidence from an eye tracking experiment recording fixations as well as the Index of Cognitive Activity – a novel measure of cognitive workload – supporting the view that over-specifications facilitate processing. We further present original evidence that, above and beyond the effect of specificity, referring expressions that uniformly reduce referential entropy also benefit processing.