The influence of connectives on young readers' processing and comprehension of text.

Connectives are cohesive devices that signal the relations between clauses and are critical to the construction of a coherent representation of a text's meaning. The authors investigated young readers' knowledge, processing, and comprehension of temporal, causal, and adversative connectives using offline and online tasks. In a cloze task, 10-year-olds were more accurate than 8-year-olds on temporal and adversative connectives, but both age groups differed from adult levels of performance (Experiment 1). When required to rate the “sense” of 2-clause sentences linked by connectives, 10-year-olds and adults were better at discriminating between clauses linked by appropriate and inappropriate connectives than were 8-year-olds. The 10-year-olds differed from adults only on the temporal connectives (Experiment 2). In contrast, online reading time measures indicated that 8-year-olds' processing of text is influenced by connectives as they read, in much the same way as 10-year-olds'. Both age groups read text more quickly when target 2-clause sentences were linked by an appropriate connective compared with texts in which a connective was neutral (and), inappropriate to the meaning conveyed by the 2 clauses, or not present (Experiments 3 and 4). These findings indicate that although knowledge and comprehension of connectives is still developing in young readers, connectives aid text processing in typically developing readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for Narrative and Expository Text: Independent Influences of Semantic Associations and Text Organization.

The author examined memory for text in terms of the independent influences of semantic knowledge associations and text organization. Semantic associations were operationalized as the semantic relatedness between individual text concepts and the text as a whole and assessed with latent semantic analysis. The author assessed text organization by simulating comprehension with the construction integration model. Text organization consistently accounted for unique variance in recall. Semantic associations strongly predicted expository recall and predicted narrative recall significantly but to a lesser extent, even when the familiarity of the narrative content was manipulated. Results suggest that prior semantic associations and novel associations in the text structure influence memory independently, and that these influences can be affected by text genre. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How prior knowledge, WMC, and relevance of information affect eye fixations in expository text.

This study examined how prior knowledge and working memory capacity (WMC) influence the effect of a reading perspective on online text processing. In Experiment 1, 47 participants read and recalled 2 texts of different familiarity from a given perspective while their eye movements were recorded. The participants' WMC was assessed with the reading span test. The results suggest that if the reader has prior knowledge related to text contents and a high WMC, relevant text information can be encoded into memory without extra processing time. In Experiment 2, baseline processing times showed whether readers slow down their processing of relevant information or read faster through the irrelevant information. The results are discussed in the light of different working memory theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and self-regulated language processing.

An adult developmental model of self-regulated language processing (SRLP) is introduced, in which the allocation policy with which a reader engages text is driven by declines in processing capacity, growth in knowledge-based processes, and age-related shifts in reading goals. Evidence is presented to show that the individual reader's allocation policy is consistent across time and across different types of text, can serve a compensatory function in relation to abilities, and is predictive of subsequent memory performance. As such, it is an important facet of language understanding and learning from text through the adult life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding and solving word arithmetic problems.

Presents a processing model that deals explicitly with both the text-comprehension and problem-solving aspects of word arithmetic problems. General principles from a theory of text processing developed by T. A. Van Dijk and the 1st author (1983) are combined with hypotheses by M. S. Riley et al (1983) about semantic knowledge for understanding problem texts in an integrated model of problem comprehension. The model simulates construction of cognitive representations that include information that is appropriate for problem-solving procedures that children use. Several information-processing steps are distinguished, and various levels of representation are described. The model provides an analysis of processing requirements, including requirements for short-term memory that differ among types of problems. Predictions about difficulty of problems based on these processing differences are generally consistent with reported data. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptual processing during the conscious resting state. A functional MRI study

Localized, task-induced decreases in cerebral blood flow are a frequent finding in functional brain imaging research but remain poorly understood. One account of these phenomena postulates processes ongoing during conscious, resting states that are interrupted or inhibited by task performance. Psychological evidence suggests that conscious humans are engaged almost continuously in adaptive processes involving semantic knowledge retrieval, representation in awareness, and directed manipulation of represented knowledge for organization, problem-solving, and planning. If interruption of such 'conceptual' processes accounts for task-induced deactivation, tasks that also engage these conceptual processes should not cause deactivation. Furthermore, comparisons between conceptual and nonconceptual tasks should show activation during conceptual tasks of the same brain areas that are 'deactivated' relative to rest. To test this model, functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired during a resting state, a perceptual task, and a semantic retrieval task. A network of left-hemisphere polymodal cortical regions showed higher signal values during the resting state than during the perceptual task but equal values during the resting and semantic conditions. This result is consistent with the proposal that perceptual tasks interrupt processes ongoing during rest that involve many of the same brain areas engaged during semantic retrieval. As further evidence for this model, the same network of brain areas was activated in two direct comparisons between semantic and perceptual processing tasks. This same 'conceptual processing' network was also identified in several previous studies that contrasted semantic and perceptual tasks or resting and active states. The model proposed here offers a unified account of these findings and may help to explain several unanticipated results from prior studies of semantic processing.     

Pay now or pay later: Aging and the role of boundary salience in self-regulation of conceptual integration in sentence processing.

Previous research has suggested that older readers may self-regulate input during reading differently from the way younger readers do, so as to accommodate age-graded change in processing capacity. For example, older adults may pause more frequently for conceptual integration. Presumably, such an allocation policy would enable older readers to manage the cognitive demands of constructing a semantic representation of the text by off-loading the products of intermediate computations to long-term memory, thus decreasing memory demands as conceptual load increases. This was explicitly tested in 2 experiments measuring word-by-word reading time for sentences in which boundary salience was manipulated but in which semantic content was controlled. With both a computer-based moving-window paradigm that permits only forward eye movements, and an eye-tracking paradigm that allows measurement of regressive eye movements, we found evidence for the proposed tradeoff between early and late wrap-up. Across the 2 experiments, age groups were more similar than different in regulating processing time. However, older adults showed evidence of exaggerated early wrap-up in both experiments. These data are consistent with the notion that readers opportunistically regulate effort and that older readers can use this to good advantage to maintain comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic transparency in the processing of compounds: consequences for representation, processing, and impairment

The role of semantic transparency in morphological processing in general and in compound processing in particular is examined. It is argued that the notion of semantic transparency is crucial to an account of how compounds are represented and processed in the mind. A sketch of a model is proposed in which compound processing is described in terms of stimulus properties, lexical properties, and conceptual properties. The model represents the notion of semantic transparency in terms of a four-way classification of the semantic relationship between a compound's constituents and the corresponding independent morphemes. It also distinguishes between semantically componential and noncomponential compounds. It is proposed that the model offers a framework within which experimental psycholinguistic findings can be understood and within which aphasic deficits associated with compound processing can be characterized. As an example of this, the paper presents a reanalysis of an aphasic patient who exhibits the tendency to interpret semantically opaque compounds as though they were transparent and to interpret opaque compounds in terms of a blend of constituent and whole-word meaning. It is argued that the underlying deficit in this patient is the failure for inhibition to result from the competition among stimuli at the conceptual level of representation.     

Searching for Judy: How small mysteries affect narrative processes and memory.

Current theories of text processing say little about how authors' narrative choices, including the introduction of small mysteries, can affect readers' narrative experiences. Gerrig, Love, and McKoon (2009) provided evidence that 1 type of small mystery—a character introduced without information linking him or her to the story—affects readers' moment-by-moment processing. For that project, participants read stories that introduced characters by proper name alone (e.g., “Judy”) or with information connecting the character to the rest of the story (e.g., “our principal Judy”). In an online recognition probe task, responses to the character's name 3 lines after his or her introduction were faster when the character had not been introduced with connecting information, suggesting that the character remained accessible awaiting resolution. In the 4 experiments in this article, we extend our theoretical analysis of small mysteries. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found evidence that trait information (e.g., “daredevil Judy”) is not sufficient to connect a character to a text. In Experiments 3 and 4, we found evidence that the moment-by-moment processing effects of such small mysteries also affect readers' memory for the stories. We interpret the results in terms of Kintsch's (1988) construction-integration model of discourse processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Syntactic analysis during language comprehension.

Recent research has demonstrated the psychological reality of syntactic structure in language comprehension. A syntactic structure is a representation of the linear and hierarchical relations among words. It is proposed that such a structure must be created and then semantically interpreted in order for a listener or reader to understand a sentence. Some psychologists have claimed that comprehenders do not rely on purely syntactic strategies to parse sentences; instead, comprehenders use a variety of semantic heuristics and bypass syntactic analysis altogether. Work that my colleagues and I have conducted suggests that comprehenders do use syntactic strategies to parse sentences. In particular, evidence shows that comprehenders attempt to construct the simplest syntactic structure possible, and only revise that interpretation if the sentence becomes syntactically or semantically anomalous. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-regulated reading in adulthood.

Young and older adults read a series of passages of 3 different genres for an immediate assessment of text memory (measured by recall and true/false questions). Word-by-word reading times were measured and decomposed into components reflecting resource allocation to particular linguistic processes using regression. Allocation to word and textbase processes showed some consistency across the 3 text types and was predictive of memory performance. Older adults allocated more time to word and textbase processes than the young adults did but showed enhanced contextual facilitation. Structural equation modeling showed that greater resource allocation to word processes was required among readers with relatively low working memory spans and poorer verbal ability and that greater resource allocation to textbase processes was engendered by higher verbal ability. Results are discussed in terms of a model of self-regulated language processing suggesting that older readers may compensate for processing deficiencies through greater reliance on discourse context and on increases in resource allocation that are enabled through growth in crystallized ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing causal and diagnostic statements in discourse.

Diagnostic statements (e.g., It is raining because the streets are wet) take longer to read than causal statements (e.g., The streets are wet because it is raining). The authors present 4 experiments investigating this phenomenon. In Experiment 1, a reading-time study, the authors demonstrate that this difficulty is reversed when a more complex mental model is cued through the use of phrases like John thinks that and John says that. Experiment 2 shows that the use of a modal construction (e.g., Perhaps it is raining because the streets are wet) makes the processing of diagnostics as easy as processing causals but does not disadvantage causals. The authors explain the pattern of results by proposing that readers build the simplest possible discourse representation during interpretation and that readers adopt a specific pattern of semantic interpretation. These proposals are tested and verified in Experiments 3 and 4. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tacit verification of determinate and indeterminate text ideas.

Singer (2006; see record 2006-05124-008) presented evidence that reading time reflects, in part, processes of continuously verifying current clauses with reference to their text antecedents. This study extended that analysis to text ideas of indeterminate truth in their discourse context. For example, having read simply that Norm’s house was destroyed, one might later read that Norm’s cousin believed that Norm’s house was destroyed by a fire. Research concerning people’s reports of not knowing something suggested that the reading of clauses of indeterminate truth would be faster than for false or inconsistent clauses. In two experiments, target sentences varied in their truth, verb entailments, and use of negation with reference to their antecedents. Reading time for indeterminate targets was sometimes distinctly shorter and was never longer than for corresponding false targets. The effects were modulated by the entailments of factive and nonfactive main verbs and by negative expression. All of the conditions that were identical to ones of Singer (2006) replicated the former findings. It was concluded that encountering text ideas of indeterminate truth does not initiate protracted memory searches for comparable concepts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical access in aphasic and nonaphasic speakers.

An interactive 2-step theory of lexical retrieval was applied to the picture-naming error patterns of aphasic and nonaphasic speakers. The theory uses spreading activation in a lexical network to accomplish the mapping between the conceptual representation of an object and the phonological form of the word naming the object. A model developed from the theory was parameterized to fit normal error patterns. It was then "lesioned" by globally altering its connection weight, decay rates, or both to provide fits to the error patterns of 21 fluent aphasic patients. These fits were then used to derive predictions about the influence of syntactic categories on patient errors, the effect of phonology on semantic errors, error patterns after recovery, and patient performance on a single-word repetition task. The predictions were confirmed. It is argued that simple quantitative alterations to a normal processing model can explain much of the variety among patient patterns in naming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Situation models and aging.

Younger and older adults were tested for their ability to process and retrieve information from texts. The authors focused on the construction and retrieval of situation models relative to other types of text representations. The results showed that during memory retrieval, younger adults showed superior memory for surface form and textbase knowledge (what the text was), whereas older adults had equivalent or superior memory for situation model information (what the text was about). The results also showed that during reading, older and younger adults were similar in their sensitivity to various aspects of the texts. Overall, these findings suggest that although there are age-related declines in the processing and memory for text-based information, for higher level representations, these abilities appear to be preserved. Several possibilities for why this is the case are discussed, including an in-depth consideration of one possibility that involves W. Kintsch's (1988) construction-integration model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural psychology as metatheory.

Examines the nature and uses of metatheory. Current needs for metatheoretical understanding are discussed in the context of increased skepticism about grand narratives. A focus on the lived meanings of existing metatheory and meta discourse points to the importance of cultural psychology in addressing some of the conceptual, methodological, and axiological problems being faced. It is proposed that cultural psychology can illuminate the semantic sources and pragmatics of academic discourse in the social sciences and facilitate a reflexive understanding of ways of being and knowing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Function follows form: Activation of shape and function features during object identification.

Most theories of semantic memory characterize knowledge of a given object as comprising a set of semantic features. But how does conceptual activation of these features proceed during object identification? We present the results of a pair of experiments that demonstrate that object recognition is a dynamically unfolding process in which function follows form. We used eye movements to explore whether activating one object's concept leads to the activation of others that share perceptual (shape) or abstract (function) features. Participants viewed 4-picture displays and clicked on the picture corresponding to a heard word. In critical trials, the conceptual representation of 1 of the objects in the display was similar in shape or function (i.e., its purpose) to the heard word. Importantly, this similarity was not apparent in the visual depictions (e.g., for the target Frisbee, the shape-related object was a triangular slice of pizza, a shape that a Frisbee cannot take); preferential fixations on the related object were therefore attributable to overlap of the conceptual representations on the relevant features. We observed relatedness effects for both shape and function, but shape effects occurred earlier than function effects. We discuss the implications of these findings for current accounts of the representation of semantic memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociation between syntactic and semantic processing during idiom comprehension.

Syntactic and semantic processing of literal and idiomatic phrases were investigated with a priming procedure. In 3 experiments, participants named targets that were syntactically appropriate or inappropriate completions for semantically unrelated sentence contexts. Sentences ended with incomplete idioms (kick the…) and were biased for either a literal (ball) or an idiomatic (bucket) completion. Syntactically appropriate targets were named more quickly than inappropriate ones for both contextual biases, suggesting that syntactic analysis occurs for idioms. In a final experiment, targets were either concrete (expected) or abstract (unexpected) nouns. For literal sentences, the abstract targets were named more slowly than the concrete targets. In contrast, there was no concreteness effect for idiomatic sentences, suggesting that the literal meaning of the idiom is not processed. Overall, the results provide evidence for dissociation between syntactic and semantic processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)