Updating Situation Models: Reply to Zwaan and Madden (2004).

E. J. O'Brien, M. L. Rizzella, J. E. Albrecht, and J. G. Halleran (1998) demonstrated that, consistent with the memory-based text processing view, outdated or incorrect information can be reactivated through a passive resonance process. Once reactivated, this outdated information can still influence comprehension. R. A. Zwaan and C. J. Madden (2004) suggested that the O'Brien et al. findings resulted from problems with the materials used. The present authors show that the possible "problems" identified by Zwaan and Madden do not adequately explain the findings of O'Brien et al. and that Zwaan and Madden's Experiment 3 lacks sufficient control or power to support their alternative interpretation of O'Brien et al. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accessibility of outdated information.

In 2 previous studies (O'Brien, Rizzella, Albrecht, & Halleran, 1998; Zwaan & Madden, 2004), researchers have provided conflicting accounts about whether outdated information continues to influence the comprehension of subsequent text. The current set of experiments was designed to explore further the impact of outdated information on comprehension. First, we examined factors that may have contributed to Zwaan and Madden's (2004) finding that outdated information did not influence comprehension. Experiments 1a and 1b demonstrated that when Zwaan and Madden's target sentences were rewritten to move the targeted anaphor away from the end of the sentence, the impact of outdated information emerged with their materials. With a new set of materials, Experiment 2 demonstrated that outdated information continued to disrupt comprehension, even when the updating information created an irreversible change-in-state of a primary object in the story. The results of all 3 experiments are consistent with a passive reactivation process in which outdated information can influence comprehension processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of context in accessing distant information during reading.

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated factors that influence accessibility of backgrounded goal information. Participants read texts consisting of 2 episodes. In the 1st episode, the goal was satisfied or unsatisfied. Following a statement of goal satisfaction or goal postponement, there was a 2nd unrelated episode. After completion of the 2nd episode, target sentences were presented that were consistent with the 2nd episode but were inconsistent with completion of the earlier unsatisfied goal. Participants noticed the inconsistency only when the conflicting information was separated by a few sentences or when the context of the goal had been reinstated. The results are consistent with the resonance model described by J. E. Albrecht and E. J. O'Brien (see record 1994-00399-001) and by J. L. Myers, E. J. O'Brien, J. E. Albrecht, and R. A. Mason (see record 1995-39562-001). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Updating a situation model: a memory-based text processing view

Previous research (J. E. Albrecht & E. J. O'Brien, 1993) demonstrated that readers were aware of an inconsistency between an earlier described characteristic of a protagonist and a subsequent target action carried out by the protagonist. In a series of 5 experiments, a qualification was added to the described characteristic that restricted the conditions under which the characteristic was operative. According to the here-and-now view of mapping, readers should use this qualification to maintain a fully updated model of the protagonist in active memory and should not experience comprehension difficulty when reading the target action. In contrast, according to the memory-based text processing view, the qualification would not be part of the active discourse model. Instead, it would be reactivated when the target action was read. Thus, readers should still experience comprehension difficulty. Results of all 5 experiments were consistent with the memory-based text processing view.     

Sentence processing in the face of semantic loss: A case study.

The modularity of the sentence processor, or lack thereof, remains a much-debated issue in psycholinguistics. The authors present evidence from a semantically impaired patient (DM) that bears on this issue. As demonstrated elsewhere (S. D. Breedin, E. M. Saffran, & H. B. Coslett, see record 1996-90000-001), DM suffered a significant loss of semantic knowledge. Here, the authors show that this impairment did not compromise DM's ability to process syntactic information. DM performed well on grammaticality judgment tasks and on sentence comprehension tasks that required the use of syntactic information for the assignment of thematic roles. The resistance of syntactic operations to semantic loss would seem to pose a challenge for models in which "the syntactic and conceptual aspects of processing are … inextricably intertwined" (J. L. McClelland, M. St. John, & R. Taraban, see record 1991-26409-001, p. 329). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Situation models in language comprehension and memory

This article reviews research on the use of situation models in language comprehension and memory retrieval over the past 15 years. Situation models are integrated mental representations of a described state of affairs. Significant progress has been made in the scientific understanding of how situation models are involved in language comprehension and memory retrieval. Much of this research focuses on establishing the existence of situation models, often by using tasks that assess one dimension of a situation model. However, the authors argue that the time has now come for researchers to begin to take the multidimensionality of situation models seriously. The authors offer a theoretical framework and some methodological observations that may help researchers to tackle this issue.     

Three Turtles in Danger: Spontaneous Construction of Causally Relevant Spatial Situation Models.

In 4 experiments, the author explored the spontaneous construction of spatial situation models during discourse comprehension by using the sentence-recognition paradigm of J. D. Bransford, J. R. Barclay, and J. J. Franks (1972). In Experiment 1, signaling causal relevance of spatial relations was a necessary precondition for replicating their original finding of spontaneously constructed spatial representations. Causal relevance was ensured in the subsequent experiments by a judgment task indirectly demanding the evaluation of described spatial relations with regard to causal relevance. Participants spontaneously constructed spatial situation models of text presented auditorily or visually. Effects of spontaneous construction were more reliable when encoding was easier. The results suggest a revised interpretation of J. D. Bransford et al.'s study and corroborate recent evidence showing that relevant spatial information in texts is reliably represented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The metrics of spatial situation models.

The authors investigated the metrics of spatial distance represented in situation models of narratives. In 3 experiments, a spatial gradient of accessibility in situation models was observed: The accessibility of objects contained in the situation model decreased with increasing spatial distance between the object and the reader's focus of attention. The first 2 experiments demonstrated that this effect of spatial distance was purely categorical rather than Euclidean: Accessibility depended on the number of rooms located between the object and the focus of attention, not on the size of the rooms. Experiment 3 revealed, however, that participants were able to use information about Euclidean distance in a secondary task when necessary. The implications of these results for theories of narrative comprehension and hierarchical versus nonhierarchical theories of spatial memory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Narrative comprehension and aging: The fate of completed goal information.

Previous research has shown that older adults are able to use situation models in a manner similar to younger adults. However, other areas of cognition have shown that older adults are less able to remove irrelevant information from the current stream of processing. Accordingly, the authors tested whether older and younger adults would differ in reducing the availability of information about a completed goal in a situation model during narrative comprehension. In 2 experiments, memory probes tested for the availability of protagonist goal information during reading when it was either failed goal, completed goal, or neutral information. The results for both age groups showed that goal information was most available in the failed goal condition, less available in the completed goal condition, and least available in the neutral condition. No reliable differences between younger and older adults in the pattern of response times were observed. Reading time data were also examined to explore the possibility that older adults engage in a longer wrap-up period after a goal is completed, but no such difference was found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eye movements of young and older adults while reading with distraction.

The authors used eye-tracking technology to examine young and older adults' online performance in the reading in distraction paradigm. Participants read target sentences and answered comprehension questions following each sentence. In some sentences, single-word distracters were presented in either italic or red font. Distracters could be related or unrelated to the target text. Online measures, including probability of fixation, fixation duration, and number of fixations to distracting text, revealed no age differences in text processing. However, young adults did have an advantage over older adults in overall reading time and text comprehension. These results provide no support for an inhibition deficit account of age differences in the reading in distraction paradigm, but are consistent with J. Dywan and W. E. Murphy's (1996) suggestion that older adults are less able than the young to distinguish target and distracter information held in working memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Discrepancy in Analyses of the MSCEIT--Resolving the Mystery and Understanding Its Implications: A Reply to Gignac (2005).

Replies to comments made by G. E. Gignac (see record 2005-06671-010) on the current authors' original article (see record 2003-02341-015). Gignac reanalyzed the factor structure of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and found results that differed from those the authors obtained initially. The authors tracked down the surprising sources of those discrepancies. G. E. Gignac's hierarchical model of emotional intelligence appears promising, and the authors anticipate that further investigations of the MSCEIT factor structure may yield additional information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information processing speed and sentence comprehension in Parkinson's disease.

This study tests the hypothesis that sentence comprehension difficulty in Parkinson's disease (PD) is related in part to altered information processing speed that plays a crucial role in grammatical processing. The authors measured information processing speed in 32 PD patients without dementia using a lexical list-priming paradigm in which the interstimulus interval (ISI) between the prime and the target varied. Sentence comprehension accuracy was also assessed in 22 of these patients. Sentence comprehension accuracy for object-relative center-embedded sentences was impaired in a subgroup of PD patients. This subgroup of PD patients primed at an abnormally long ISI. Similarly, only PD patients who primed at a long ISI had greater difficulty understanding sentences with an object-relative clause than a subject-relative clause. Findings suggest that slowed information processing speed contributes to sentence comprehension difficulty in PD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The emergence of coherence over the course of decision making.

Previous research has indicated that decision making is accompanied by an increase in the coherence of assessments of the factors related to the decision alternatives. In the present study, the authors investigated whether this coherence shift is obtained before people commit to a decision, and whether it is obtained in the course of a number of other processing tasks. College students were presented with a complex legal case involving multiple conflicting arguments. Participants rated agreement with the individual arguments in isolation before seeing the case and after processing it under various initial sets, including playing the role of a judge assigned to decide the case. Coherence shifts were observed when participants were instructed to delay making the decision (Experiment 1), to memorize the case (Experiment 2), and to comprehend the case (Experiment 3). The findings support the hypothesis that a coherence-generating mechanism operates in a variety of processing tasks, including decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Probabilistic Models for Modulus of Elasticity of Self-Consolidated Concrete: Bayesian Approach

Current models of the modulus of elasticity, E, of concrete recommended by the American Concrete Institute and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials are derived for normally vibrated concrete (NVC). Because self-consolidated concrete (SCC) mixtures differ from NVC in the quantities and types of constituent materials, supplementary cementing materials, and chemical admixtures, the current models, may not take into consideration the complexity of SCC, and thus they may predict the E of SCC inaccurately. Although some authors recommend specific models to predict E of SCC, they include only a single variable of assumed importance, namely, the design compressive strength of concrete, fc′. However, there are other parameters that may need to be accounted for while developing a prediction model for E of SCC. In this paper, a Bayesian variable selection method is used to identify the significant parameters in predicting the E of SCC, and more accurate models for E are generated using these variables. The models have a parsimonious parametrization for ease of use in practice and properly account for the prevailing uncertainties.     

Category-specific semantic deficits: The role of familiarity and property type reexamined.

Category-specific deficits for living things have been explained variously as an artifact due to differences in the familiarity of concepts in different categories (E. Funnell & J. Sheridan, 1992) or as the result of an underlying impairment to sensory knowledge (E. K. Warrington & T. Shallice, 1984). Efforts to test these hypotheses empirically have been hindered by the shortcomings of currently available stimulus materials. A new set of stimuli are described that the authors developed to overcome the limitations of existing sets. The set consists of color photographs, matched across categories for familiarity and visual complexity. This set was used to test the semantic knowledge of a classic patient, J.B.R. (E. K. Warrington & T. Shallice, 1984). The results suggest that J.B.R.'s deficit for living things cannot be explained in terms of familiarity effects and that the most severely affected categories are those whose identification is most dependent on sensory information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The roles of static depth information and object-image relative motion in perception of heading.

In a series of 6 experiments, two hypotheses were tested: that nominal heading perception is determined by the relative motion of images of objects positioned at different depths (R. F. Wang and J. E. Cutting, 1999) and that static depth information contributes to this determination. By manipulating static depth information while holding retinal-image motion constant during simulated self-movement, the authors found that static depth information played a role in determining perceived heading. Some support was also found for the involvement of R. F. Wang and J. E. Cutting's (1999) categories of object-image relative motion in determining perceived heading. However, results suggested an unexpected functional dominance of information about heading relative to apparently near objects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond pictures and words: Alternative information-processing models for imagery effect in verbal memory.

Presents an information-processing approach to imagery effects in verbal memory tasks. A general model of the process of forming images from verbal input is developed, based on propositional memory representations like those used in computer simulations of sentence comprehension, visual scene analysis, and image processing. The general model is then refined in several classes of alternative models that attempt to account for imagery effects, with emphasis on sentence memory results, by using different mechanisms in the general model. The major division in the alternative models is whether the facilitation produced by imagery is due to the actual storage of image information or is just a by-product of image formation or the use of high-imagery materials. Some of the models are rejected on the basis of published data. Two of the remaining models would require substantial progress in the study of sentence memory and comprehension in a way not directly related to imagery. The models most likely to be successful are those that assume that the use of imagery results in the storage of redundant information that provides alternate retrieval routes. (2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elaborative inferencing as an active or passive process.

E. J. O'Brien et al (see record 1988-31689-001) reported that readers generated elaborative inferences only when a text contained characteristics that virtually eliminated the possibility of an inference being disconfirmed. We reanalyzed O'Brien's data and also conducted an experiment in which we varied (a) whether or not there was an anaphoric relation between a target word and its prior mention in the text and (b) the explicitness of the prior mention. Two refinements to O'Brien et al's conclusions are offered. First, the two text characteristics they manipulated (a strong biasing context or a demand sentence) may have produced different types of elaborative inferencing. We argue that a biasing context results in a passive form of elaborative inferencing, involving setting up a context of interpretation, whereas the presence of a demand sentence invites the reader to actively predict a subsequent expression. Second, clear evidence for either type of inference will be apparent only with truly anaphoric materials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The comprehension and validation of social information.

The information one acquires in daily life concerns specific people and events about which one has prior knowledge. A theory of social cognition is proposed to account for the comprehension and verification of such information. The theory views comprehension as a process of constructing situation models of new information on the basis of previously formed models about its referents. The theory specifies the conditions in which statements about familiar people and events (e.g., "Jane Fonda does aerobics") are spontaneously recognized as true or false in the process of comprehending them. It further specifies the conditions in which these spontaneous validity judgments of a statement will influence perceptions of its implications when the statement is made in a social context. The comprehension of both single statements and multiple pieces of information in combination is considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociating the wheat from the chaff in theories of hypnosis: Reply to Kihlstrom (1998) and Woody and Sadler (1998).

Although there are noteworthy commonalities among disparate theories of hypnosis, they are neither as readily integrated nor as complementary as J. E Kihlstrom (1998) and E. Woody and P. Sadler (1998) implied. All current theories of hypnosis, including our social cognitive model, are provisional and incomplete, and each has something of value to offer. However, the multiple streams of consciousness hypothesis and the hypnotic state hypothesis should be abandoned because they are neither well supported by data nor consistent with current research and theory in social and cognitive psychology. In their place, the authors propose theoretical formulations based on such concepts as response sets, hierarchical control systems, associative memory networks, automatic activation of behavior, motivation, intention, and response expectancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)