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Reinstatement of causal information in reading
Abstract
Four different tasks were used to investigate if readers reinstate information which is no longer in focus when it is needed to resolve a break in causal coherence. In five experiments an inference condition was included in which passages contained a causal coherence break which could be resolved by reinstating a backgrounded concept. In Experiment 1, the results of a recognition task provided evidence that readers were able to integrate the targeted cause more easily with the inference version than the control version of the passage, either because of processes occurring while reading or at the time of test. In Experiments 2 and 3, the results of a word naming task provided evidence that the backgrounded cause was reactivated during reading in the inference condition after encountering the coherence break. In Experiment 4, the results of a reading time measure suggested that readers did not only reactivate a single concept, but used this concept to form a new proposition which acted as a cause for the action in the focal sentence. The causal link was maintained in working memory. According to the results of the recall test in the final experiment, the causal link was also included in the long-term memory text representation. The results were interpreted as support for a fast, direct access, "resonance" process rather than a slow, deliberate search.
Subject Area
Experimental psychology|Psychology
Recommended Citation
Klin, Celia Michele, "Reinstatement of causal information in reading" (1993). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9408295.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9408295