Abstract

BARREYRO, Juan Pablo  and  MOLINARI MAROTTO, Carlos. Reinstatement and elaborative inferences during narrative text comprehension. Anu. investig. [online]. 2005, vol.12, pp.221-225. ISSN 1851-1686.

Two types of causal inferences were investigated during the reading of narratives. Reinstatements connect the focal statement to information retrieved from long term memory for the prior text; backward elaborations activate world knowledge that was not presented in the text. Subjects in an experiment were asked to read on a computer screen three folk tales, one sentence at the time, at their own pace. Unexpectedly during reading, an item for lexical decision appeared. Target words were concepts representing reinstatements or backward elaborations. They appeared in two possible locations. In the pre-inference location target words appeared immediately before sentences that, according to the causal network analysis, required the reader to activate the corresponding concept. In the inference location target words appeared immediately after those sentences. The difference found between reaction times in both conditions for both types of inference suggest that both are generated during reading.

Keywords : Comprehension; Narrative text; Inferences.

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