Reference and comprehension: A topic-comment analysis of sentence-picture verification

A sentence often contains two components: a topic, which refers to a nonlinguistic object whose existence is presupposed; and a comment, which asserts some thought about this object. In addition, a sentence will often repeat (or refer back to) information that was expressed earlier in a text or conversation. The purpose of this article is to propose a single theoretical framework to describe the mechanisms that relate a sentence to its nonlinguistic environment as well as those that relate a sentence to its linguistic context. The theory developed in this article suggests that sentences can strongly influence the representation of visible nonlinguistic events and that this representation is sensitive to the distinction between presupposed and asserted information. To evaluate this theory, a sentence-picture verification priming task was developed. In this task, subjects were presented with pairs of sentence-picture displays, and were asked to verify whether or not the sentence in each display correctly applied to an accompanying picture. The relationship between pairs of sentence-picture displays was varied systematically. Across five experiments, three hypotheses were supported: (a) The processes which evaluate presupposed information and the processes which evaluate asserted information are differentially affected by nonlinguistic factors, (b) only those aspects of the picture which are referred to by the sentence are encoded for future use, and (c) coherence between successive sentences is in part a function of the referential continuity of the presupposed information.     

Coherence-driven resolution of referential ambiguity: A computational model

We present a computational model that provides a unified account of inference, coherence, and disambiguation. It simulates how the build-up of coherence in text leads to the knowledge-based resolution of referential ambiguity. Possible interpretations of an ambiguity are represented by centers of gravity in a high-dimensional space. The unresolved ambiguity forms a vector in the same space. This vector is attracted by the centers of gravity, while also being affected by context information and world knowledge. When the vector reaches one of the centers of gravity, the ambiguity is resolved to the corresponding interpretation. The model accounts for reading time and error rate data from experiments on ambiguous pronoun resolution and explains the effects of context informativeness, anaphor type, and processing depth. It shows how implicit causality can have an early effect during reading. A novel prediction is that ambiguities can remain unresolved if there is insufficient disambiguating information.     

A case study of anomaly detection: Shallow semantic processing and cohesion establishment

Although the establishment of a coherent mental representation depends on semantic analysis, such analysis is not necessarily complete. This is illustrated by failures to notice the anomaly in questions such as, “When an airplane crashes, where should the survivors be buried?” Four experiments were carried out to extend knowledge of what determines the incidental detection of the critical item. Detection is a function of the goodness of global fit of the item (Experiments 1 and 2) and the extent to which the scenario predicts the item (Experiment 3). Global good fit appears to result in shallow processing of details. In Experiment 4, it is shown that if satisfactory coherence can be established without detailed semantic analysis, through the recruitment of suitable information from a sentence, then processing is indeed shallow. The studies also show that a text is not understood by first producing a local semantic representation and then incorporating this into a global model, and that semantic processing is not strictly incremental.     

Reference in Conceptual Realism

A conceptual theory of the referential and predicable concepts used in basic speech and mental acts is described in which singular and general, complex and simple, and pronominal and nonpronominal, referential concepts are given a uniform account. The theory includes an intensional realism in which the intensional contents of predicable and referential concepts are represented through nominalized forms of the predicate and quantifier phrases that stand for those concepts. A central part of the theory distinguishes between active and deactivated referential concepts, where the latter are represented by nominalized quantifier phrases that occur as parts of complex predicates. Peter Geach's arguments against theories of general reference in Reference and Generality are used as a foil to test the adequacy of the theory. Geach's arguments are shown to either beg the question of general as opposed to singular reference or to be inapplicable because of the distinction between active and deactivated referential concepts.     

Learning From Text

A framework is presented for distinguishing between two types of mental representations formed while reading a text: The textbase is a representation built in the process of comprehension, and a situation model is built to represent the situation described in the text. Two studies are reported that explore the relative contribution of each type of representation and their interaction during problem solving. In the first, grade school children solved easy and hard arithmetic word problems of three types: change, combine, and compare. When asked to recall, reconstruction of the problems occurred and was related to solution performance. Children tended to recall problems already solved on the basis of the situation model used in solutions and not by reproducing the original textbase. In the second study, college students formed mental maps while reading two types of texts describing the layout of a town: The survey text described the town in geographical terms, and the route version presented the same information as a series of instructions for driving through the town. A dichotomy was seen between remembering the text and learning from it; the former was dependent on text coherence, and the latter depended on the formation of a situation model. Implications for instruction are discussed in terms of clarifying goals for the use of texts and distinguishing between instruction aimed toward recall and instruction aimed toward learning.     

Connectionism and the problem of systematicity: why Smolensky's solution doesn't work

In two recent papers, Paul Smolensky responds to a challenge Jerry Fodor and Zenon Pylyshyn posed for connectionist theories of cognition: to explain the existence of systematic relations among cognitive capacities without assuming that mental processes are causally sensitive to the constituent structure of mental representations. Smolensky thinks connectionists can explain systematicity if they avail themselves of "distributed" mental representation. In facts, Smolensky offers two accounts of distributed mental representation, corresponding to his notions of "weak" and "strong" compositional structure. We argue that weak compositional structure is irrelevant to the systematicity problem and of dubious internal coherence. We then argue that strong compositional (tensor product) representations fail to explain systematicity because they fail to exhibit the sort of constituents that can provide domains for structure sensitive mental processes.     

说明文阅读中因果序列的表征

结合自定步调阅读与句子启动再认范式, 探讨说明文阅读过程中因果序列的表征问题。研究包括3个实验, 实验1的文本提供一个包括4个概念的因果链(如, A－B－C－D), 文本最后设置包含概念A或概念B或概念C的句子, 对概念D进行探测, 结果发现, 对于概念D的再认启动作用, 概念C＞概念B＞概念A; 实验2改变因果链的说明顺序, 使之与因果链本身次序不一致, 结果与实验1一致; 实验3的文本分别介绍两条独立的因果链(如A－B－C; D－E－F), 最后呈现包含概念A或概念D的句子, 对概念C进行探测, 结果发现, 包含概念A的句子理解启动了相关因果链, 使读者对随后呈现的概念C的再认反应加快。基于本研究结果, 结合相关研究, 本文尝试提出说明文文本表征的建构模式。     

Situation models,propositions, and the fan effect

According to theories of language comprehension, people can construct multiple levels of representation: the surface form, the propositional text base, and the situation model. In this study, I looked at how the referential nature of memory probes affects the experience of retrieval interference. All the subjects memorized sentences about objects in locations (e.g., “The potted palm is in the hotel”). When memory probes were sentences and, therefore, referential and most closely associated with the situation model level, no interference was observed during retrieval for information that could be integrated into a common situation model. In contrast, interference was observed in such cases when the memory probes were concept pairs (POTTED PALM-HOTEL) and hence not directly referential. This is interpreted to mean that nonreferential memory probes involve surface form and text base representations more than do referential sentence probes.     

The effects of formal order and spatial content on reasoning in three dimensions

This study investigates the effects of formal order and spatial content on reasoning in three dimensions in view of the Formal Rules theory and the Mental Models theory of spatial reasoning. Twenty‐six subjects solved 144 spatial deductive problems that varied by the formal order of the entities (referential order, referential continuity) and the spatial content (dimension, orientation, and direction). There were two dependant variables: the correct responses and their response times. The number of mental models and the formal derivations underlying the deductions allowed comparison of opposite predictions made by the Formal Rules theory and the Mental Models theory of spatial reasoning. The results overwhelmingly supported the Mental Models theory's predictions. The effects of referential order showed that problems yielding two possible mental models were significantly more difficult than problems based on one mental model, although the former problems involved a shorter formal derivation than the latter. The effects of referential continuity also generalized the Mental Models theory's prediction to reasoning in all three dimensions. The effects of referential continuity showed that problems that required independent layouts in memory were reliably more difficult than problems that allowed the continuous integration of the entities in a mental model. We obtained these results despite the fact that the former condition required a shorter formal derivation than the latter. The effects of spatial content were also reliable despite the fact that the formal derivations were the same across spatial content. Thus, spatial deductions were significantly easier to make in 1D than in 2D and in 2D than 3D. Deductions were also significantly easier to make from left to right along the horizontal axis of a mental model, and from top to bottom along the vertical axis rather than from the respective opposite directions. The effects of spatial content suggest that mental models reproduce spatial relations relative to reference frames.     

不同结构文章重复阅读时主题转换效应的眼动研究

选取36名大学生,运用眼动技术,探讨不同结构类型文章在重复阅读时主题转换效应的变化特点。被试阅读的材料有两类:一是段落内部各个句子之间为平行关系(平行材料);一是每段第一个句子为该段落主题句(总分材料)。结果发现,两类材料在第一遍阅读过程中均出现了显著的主题转换效应,但在重复阅读时,主题转换效应消失,说明读者在第一遍阅读时已构建了文章的主题结构表征,并以此来指导后面的阅读。该结果支持共同策略假设理论,说明无论文章中是否存在标记,读者在阅读时都会构建一定完善的主题结构表征。     

Representations and strategies for solving dynamic and static arithmetic word problems: The role of working memory capacities

This study aims at determining the structure of the representation constructed by adults to solve multiple-step arithmetic word problems. We show that this structure is isomorphic to the structure of the situation described in the text of the problem. In effect, dynamic problems, which describe sequential events, are more likely to be solved by sequential strategies than are static problems. In other words, the order of succession of subgoals reached by individuals for the resolution is determined by the order of succession of subgoals explicitly described in the text of the problem. However, an alternative mental representation is constructed by low span individuals when its cognitive cost is not too high and, therefore, certain static problems are solved by a sequential strategy as well. We conclude that the probability of the construction of an alternative representation to the one induced by the text of the problem depends on its cost and the relative amount of cognitive resources it releases.     

Mental models as representations of text

A theory of text representation is outlined which suggests that a text is encoded in a mental model that contains representations of only those individuals and events that are relevant to the interpretation of the text in question. Such models are constructed on-line in response to cues in the text and with reference to knowledge about the world. An experiment is reported which demonstrates that mental models represent the events most probably described in a text. The results confirm previous findings that memory for the content of a passage is not based on the construction of one of its linguistically motivated representations. However, unlike most previous findings, they do support a positive proposal about the nature of the representations on which memory for content is based.     

The scheduling of text integration processes in reading

In two experiments using a self-paced reading task we explored how readers schedule the processes involved in representing text. Experiment I showed that processes concerned with increasing the coherence of the representation occur at the ends of sentences. Experiment II provided evidence that readers can modify and evaluate their representation before a sentence boundary, contrary to the type of processing scheme exemplified by H. H. Clark's Given-New strategy (Clark and Clark, 1977). A modification of the strategy is considered which renders it compatible with the data.     

语篇中代词指代的研究进展

代词的指代在语篇局部连贯性中具有关键作用。中心理论是代词指称中的重要理论,它解释了语篇中代词的分布规律;注意驱动理论是在中心理沦的基础上结合重音预设解释重音或非重音代词。影响代词指称的因素有语义因素和结构因素。对代词的认知研究另一方面主要集中在对歧义代词的解释．对歧义代词的解释的研究一方面采用重复姓名不利实验范式,另一方面的研究采用的研究方法是探测词任务。在汉语中对代词的研究主要是对文本语篇的研究。     

整体与部件表征在物体图形识别中的作用

研究通过三个实验探讨了物体表征及其对识别的影响,特别是整体与部件的关系。实验一主要研究物体整体与部件分别对物体识别的影响;实验二考察部件之间的相对距离、分割方式对物体识别的影响;实验三对自然分割和非自然分割的信息表征特点进行了进一步探讨。结果表明：（１）被试在识别被人为分成几个部分的图形时,可能运用心理操作将各部分“拼凑”起来,然后再进行识别。（２）对物体的表征是多元的,既可以通过整体特征达到对物体的识别,也可以通过局部特征识别物体。（３）部件的表征具有一定独立性,可以通过部分信息完形出整体,而不受物体熟悉度的影响。如果能够识别构成物体的部件以及确定其间的空间关系,就可以实现对物体整体的识别,但部件识别不是物体识别的绝对前提。     

Propositional reasoning by model.

This article describes a new theory of propositional reasoning, that is, deductions depending on if, or, and, and not. The theory proposes that reasoning is a semantic process based on mental models. It assumes that people are able to maintain models of only a limited number of alternative states of affairs, and they accordingly use models representing as much information as possible in an implicit way. They represent a disjunctive proposition, such as "There is a circle or there is a triangle," by imagining initially 2 alternative possibilities: one in which there is a circle and the other in which there is a triangle. This representation can, if necessary, be fleshed out to yield an explicit representation of an exclusive or an inclusive disjunction. The theory elucidates all the robust phenomena of propositional reasoning. It also makes several novel predictions, which were corroborated by the results of 4 experiments.