Superficial Processing of Explicit Inferences in Text. Technical Report No. 60.
Saved in:
| Title: | Superficial Processing of Explicit Inferences in Text. Technical Report No. 60. |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Spiro, Rand J., Esposito, Joseph, Illinois Univ., Urbana. Center for the Study of Reading., Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc., Cambridge, MA. |
| Peer Reviewed: | N |
| Page Count: | 27 |
| Publication Date: | 1977 |
| Sponsoring Agency: | National Inst. of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC. |
| Document Type: | Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Cognitive Processes, College Students, Memory, Prose, Reading Comprehension, Reading Processes, Reading Research, Recall (Psychology), Schematic Studies |
| Abstract: | The hypothesis that pragmatic inferences presented in text are taken for granted, superficially processed, and not stably or enduringly represented in memory was investigated. Stories were read which in some conditions contained information vitiating the implicational force of explicit inferences. The vitiating information was presented either before or after the inferences. In Experiment One, errors in memory for the inferences were prevalent in the "after" but not the "before" condition. Two kinds of errors were made: saying the inference had not been presented in the story; or, if it was remembered as having been presented, altering the specific content of the inference to produce the opposite of what was actually presented. The latter errors produced coherence with the vitiating information, and subjects were not able to differentiate these errors from correct responses. In Experiment Two, the results of Experiment One were replicated, and a "spontaneous correction" interpretation was rejected. The results of both experiments combine to support the hypothesis of superficial processing and unstable representation of explicit inferences. The results provide a link between processes occurring at comprehension and recall in the State of Schema model of accommodative reconstruction. (Author) |
| Entry Date: | 1978 |
| Accession Number: | ED150545 |
| Database: | ERIC |
Be the first to leave a comment!
