Working Memory Capacity and Time Course of Predictive Inferences

A naming task assessed activation of inference concepts during reading. A predicting, or a control, context sentence was followed by a target word to be named, which represented the predicted event or an inconsistent event. The interval between the end of the context and the onset of the target word varied between 50 and 1050-msec. Individual differences in working memory capacity were assessed by the reading span task. As reflected by facilitation in naming latencies in the predicting condition, relative to the control condition, (a) inferences were not made within the first 50-msec after the context, regardless of reading span; (b) only the high-span participants drew inferences within a 550-msec interval; and, (c) both the high-and the low-span participants generated them within a 1050-msec interval. These results indicate that high working memory capacity accelerates the time course of predictive inferences, although they do not become automatic. We propose that this effect occurs because these inferences involve time-consuming elaborations that place demands on the effortful and limited resources of working memory. Deficiencies in word knowledge, speed of lexical access, or comprehension of explicit information do not account for low-span readers' difficulties in generating predictive inferences.     

Working memory capacity and time course of predictive inferences

A naming task assessed activation of inference concepts during reading. A predicting, or a control, context sentence was followed by a target word to be named, which represented the predicted event or an inconsistent event. The interval between the end of the context and the onset of the target word varied between 50 and 1050 msec. Individual differences in working memory capacity were assessed by the reading span task. As reflected by facilitation in naming latencies in the predicting condition, relative to the control condition, (a) inferences were not made within the first 50 msec after the context, regardless of reading span; (b) only the high-span participants drew inferences within a 550-msec interval; and, (c) both the high- and the low-span participants generated them within a 1050-msec interval. These results indicate that high working memory capacity accelerates the time course of predictive inferences, although they do not become automatic. We propose that this effect occurs because these inferences involve time-consuming elaborations that place demands on the effortful and limited resources of working memory. Deficiencies in word knowledge, speed of lexical access, or comprehension of explicit information do not account for low-span readers' difficulties in generating predictive inferences.     

Inferences about predictable events: eye movements during reading

 Eye fixations were recorded to assess whether, how, and when readers draw inferences about predictable events. Predicting context sentences, or non-predicting control sentences, were presented, followed by continuation sentences in which a target word referred to a predictable event (inferential word) or an unlikely event (non-predictable word). There were no effects on initial target word processing measures, such as launch and landing sites, fixation probability, first-fixation duration, or first-pass reading time. However, relative to the control condition, the predicting context (1) speeded up reanalysis of the inferential word, as revealed by a reduction in second-pass reading time and regressions, and (2) interfered with processing of the non-predictable word, as shown by an increase in regressions. These results indicate that predictive inferences are active at late text integration processes, rather than at early lexical-access processes. The pattern of findings suggests that these inferences involve initial activation of rather general concepts following the inducing context, and that they are completed or refined with delay, after the inferential target word is read. Received: 4 January 2000 / Accepted: 23 October 2000     

Working memory and inferences: evidence from eye fixations during reading

Eye fixations during reading were monitored to examine the relationship between individual differences in working memory capacity-as assessed by the reading span task-and inferences about predictable events. Context sentences predicting likely events, or non-predicting control sentences, were presented. They were followed by continuation sentences in which a target word represented an event to be inferred (inferential word) or an unlikely event (non-predictable word). A main effect of reading span showed that high working memory capacity was related to shorter gaze durations across sentence regions. More specific findings involved an interaction between context, target, and reading span on late processing measures and regions. Thus, for high- but not for low-span readers, the predicting condition, relative to the control condition, facilitated reanalysis of the continuation sentence that represented the inference concept. This effect was revealed by a reduction in regression-path reading time in the last region of the sentence, involving less time reading that region and fewer regressions from it. These results indicate that working memory facilitates elaborative inferences during reading, but that this occurs at late text-integration processes, rather than at early lexical-access processes.     

Predictive inferences take time to develop

In order to determine the time course of inferences about predictable events, predicting or control contexts were presented, followed by a target word (Exps. 1A, B, and C) or a continuation sentence (Exp. 2) that confirmed or disconfirmed the predicted event. Relative to the control condition, under the predicting condition there was facilitation in naming the confirming target words 1500 ms after the onset of the last word in the context (Exp. 1C), but not after 500 ms (Exp. 1A), and only a tendency after 1000 ms (Exp. 1B). In addition, there was facilitation in reading the post-target and final regions of the continuation sentence that confirmed the predicted event, as well as inhibition when the predicted event was disconfirmed, but no effect was observed on the target word itself (Exp. 2). It is concluded that, when the predicted event is highly constrained by the context, predictive inferences are likely to be drawn on-line, but they take time to construct. Received: 14 January 1998 / Accepted: 21 April 1998     

话题结构对语篇情绪更新的影响

读者在阅读理解的过程中, 能够推断出故事主角的情绪状态, 并能随着语篇中的情绪变化做出情绪更新。在加工情绪信息的同时, 读者也加工语篇结构方面的信息, 二者皆有可能随着语篇的展开而发生变化。本研究采用自定步速阅读的方法, 分别在外显和内隐两种情绪加工任务下, 考察话题结构对语篇情绪更新的影响。结果发现, 在实验1的外显情绪判断任务下, 话题结构未显示出对语篇情绪更新的作用; 在实验2和实验3的内隐情绪理解任务下, 话题延续时, 情绪转换句的阅读时间长于情绪延续句, 此时情绪更新需要额外的加工时间; 而话题转换时, 二者没有显著差异, 说明此时读者在新结构下建立当前句的情绪表征, 并不受到先前情绪的影响。     

Strategic influence on the time course of predictive inferences in reading

In the present study, we investigated how reading strategies affect the time course of online predictive inferences. Participants read sentences under instructions either to anticipate the outcomes of described events or to understand the sentences. These were followed by a target word to be named, with stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 500 or 1,000 msec (50- or 550-msec interstimulus interval, respectively). Sentences either were predictive of events or were lexically matched control sentences. There was facilitation in naming latencies for predictable target words in the strategic-anticipation condition at both SOAs, but not in the read-to-understand condition, with a significant improvement in the former condition in comparison with the latter. This suggests that predictive inferences, which are typically considered to be resource demanding, can be speeded up by specific goals in reading. Moreover, this can occur at no cost to comprehension of explicit information, as was revealed by a comprehension test.     

What is minimal about predictive inferences?

Pronunciation of a probe word that relates to a highly predictable event is typically facilitated when the probe immediately follows the target sentence, but not when it is delayed until after a second sentence. These findings suggest that inferences about highly predictable events are minimally drawn during reading. Using a similar paradigm, in which the probe was delayed, we found significant priming in a reading condition that encouraged focus on the referential state of affairs (situation level) expressed in the sentences. In contrast, significant priming forpredictive texts was not observed in a reading condition that encouraged focus on the text per se (text level). These results are interpreted within a theoretical model that assumes that predictive inferences are represented at a situational level only, whereas explicitly presented information is represented at several levels (text and situational). It is in this sense that predictive inferences may be said to be minimally represented.     

小学低年级儿童阅读流畅性的发展轨迹及其对阅读理解的预测作用

对149名小学一年级儿童的阅读流畅性进行历时三年五次的追踪测试,采用潜变量增长模型探索了儿童阅读流畅性的发展轨迹,并在控制相关变量后,考察了阅读流畅性的起始水平和发展速度对阅读理解的预测作用。结果发现：（1）小学低年级儿童字词阅读流畅性呈非线性发展,其中一年级快速发展,二、三年级时进一步发展,但发展速度变缓,起始水平低的儿童其后发展速度快,表现出补偿模式;句子阅读流畅性呈线性发展,儿童个体之间的差异随时间逐渐增大,表现出马太效应;（2）控制一般认知能力、家庭社会经济地位及相关语言认知技能后,字词阅读流畅性的起始水平和发展速度均可预测儿童三年级时阅读理解水平,而句子阅读流畅性的起始水平不能预测,但发展速度有显著预测作用。结果说明字词阅读流畅性和句子阅读流畅性有不同的发展轨迹和发展模式,在小学低年级阶段,相比句子阅读流畅性,儿童字词阅读流畅性的起始水平对阅读理解有预测作用,且两者的发展速度均对阅读理解有预测作用。     

文本阅读中预期推理激活与编码的语境条件研究

本研究通过三个实验考察了语义联系和因果制约对文本阅读中预期推理激活和编码的贡献。结果表明,预期语境与预期事件间的语义联系不能使预期推理在文本阅读过程中得到激活和编码,语境与预期事件间的强因果关系是文本阅读过程中预期推理激活与编码的必要条件;提示阅读过程中的预期是因果预期而非联想预期。结果为建构主义推理观提供了实验依据。     

话题结构对语篇情绪累加的影响

在阅读理解的过程中,读者能够自动对语篇中的情绪进行推断。本研究采用自定步速阅读的方法,分别在外显和内隐两种情绪加工的任务下,考察话题结构对语篇情绪累加的影响。结果发现,在实验一的外显情绪判断任务下,话题结构未显示出对语篇情绪累加的明显作用;在实验二的内隐情绪理解任务下,当话题延续时,读者对有两个情绪线索的语篇的阅读时间短于仅有一个情绪线索的语篇,此时情绪的累加促进了当前句的加工,而话题转换时,二者没有显著差异,说明此时读者在新结构下建立当前句的情绪表征,并不在先前情绪的基础上进行累加。     

The generalizability of context effects on word recognition: A reconsideration of the roles of parafoveal priming and sentence context

In three experiments, subjects named target words preceded by congruous, incongruous, or neutral sentence contexts. There was no evidence that the recognition of the target word was affected by the semantic characteristics of a word presented immediately to the right of it. The nature of the preceding sentence context did affect target-naming speed. However, the magnitude of the context effect was considerably smaller in these experiments, in which nonterminal target words were used, than in previous experiments in which the target word was always the final word of the sentence, was highly predictable from the context, and was often semantically related to words in the sentence. The implications of these two findings for theories of reading and context effects are discussed.     

Sentence context modulates visual word recognition and translation in bilinguals

The influence of sentence context constraint on subsequent processing of concrete and abstract cognates and noncognates was tested in three experiments. Target words were preceded by a predictive, high constraint sentence context, by a congruent, low constraint sentence context, or were presented in isolation. Dutch-English bilinguals performed lexical decision in their second language (L2), or translated target words in forward (from L1 to L2) or in backward (from L2 to L1) direction. After reading a high constraint sentence context, cognate and concreteness effects disappeared in lexical decision and strongly decreased in both translation tasks. In contrast, low constraint sentences did not influence cognate and concreteness effects. These results suggest that semantically rich sentences modulate cross-language interaction during word recognition and word translation.     

Event-related potential indicators of text integration across sentence boundaries

An event-related potentials (ERPs) study examined word-to-text integration processes across sentence boundaries. In a two-sentence passage, the accessibility of a referent for the first content word of the second sentence (the target word) was varied by the wording of the first sentence in one of the following ways: lexically (explicitly using a form of the target word); conceptually (using a paraphrase of the target word), and situationally (encouraging an inference concerning the referent of the target word). A baseline condition had no coreference between the two sentences. ERP results on the target word indicated multiple effects related to word identification and word-to-referent mapping processes. Both the explicit and paraphrase conditions, but not the inference condition, showed a reduced N400 relative to the baseline condition, consistent with immediate integration by lexico-semantic processes. A 300-ms effect (P300) was found in the paraphrase condition. The results were consistent with an immediate integration hypothesis and furthermore differentiated a lexical (N200), a conceptual (P300), and a situational (N400) component for this integration. The conceptual basis appears not to extend to predictive inferences.     

Elaborative inferences during reading: do they occur on-line?

Four experiments were conducted to examine the extent to which readers construct elaborative inferences on-line during reading. In Experiment 1, gaze durations were measured while subjects read anaphors to target antecedents that referenced a particular category member either explicitly or implicitly. When the context strongly suggested a particular category member, gaze durations on an anaphor were the same following either an implicit or an explicit antecedent. When the context did not suggest any particular category member, gaze durations were significantly longer following an implicit antecedent. The results confirmed that, with sufficient context, readers will generate a simple elaborative inference on-line. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 in which the materials did not strongly signal the inference but a sentence designed to encourage subjects to infer was included. In Experiment 3, this "demand sentence" was not included, and readers did not appear to construct the targeted inference. The results of Experiment 4 confirmed that once generated, elaborative inferences are stored as part of the long-term-memory representation of a passage.     

汉语句子阅读理解中的语境效应

采用计算机快速系列视觉呈现技术,以反应时为指标,利用命名法,考察了汉语句子阅读中的语境效应。该研究表明：语境的作用机制是灵活的,它会随语境条件的变化而变化。在启动词与目标词语义联结弱的情况下,如果语境对目标词是一种低干扰,那么各模块之间彼此独立,一个模块不受另一个模块的影响;如果句法关系改变后的语境对目标词形成高干扰,各模块相互作用,不同语境对词汇通达有不同的作用。当启动词与目标词间有较强的语义联结时,语境效应主要来源于词与词之间的联结启动,这时的语境作用机制符合模块化理论;而当启动词与目标词间有较弱的语义联结时,随语境干扰强度的增加,目标词的词汇通达也随之增加,这时的语境作用机制则符合相互作用理论。     

The thematic hierarchy in sentence comprehension: A study on the interaction between verb class and word order in Spanish

Linking is the theory that captures the mapping of the semantic roles of lexical arguments to the syntactic functions of the phrases that realize them. At the sentence level, linking allows us to understand “who did what to whom” in an event. In Spanish, linking has been shown to interact with word order, verb class, and case marking. The current study aims to provide the first piece of experimental evidence about the interplay between word order and verb type in Spanish. We achieve this by adopting role and reference grammar and the extended argument dependency model. Two different types of clauses were examined in a self-paced reading task: clauses with object–experiencer psychological verbs and activity verbs. These types of verbs differ in the way that their syntactic and semantic structures are linked, and thus they provide interesting evidence on how information that belongs to the syntax–semantics interface might influence the predictive and integrative processes of sentence comprehension with alternative word orders. Results indicate that in Spanish, comprehension and processing speed is enhanced when the order of the constituents in the sentence mirrors their ranking on a semantic hierarchy that encodes a verb's lexical semantics. Moreover, results show that during online comprehension, predictive mechanisms based on argument hierarchization are used rapidly to inform the processing system. Our findings corroborate already existing cross-linguistic evidence on the issue and are briefly discussed in the light of other sentence-processing models.     

阅读中文时信息整合的即时性

通过两个实验对中文语篇理解中相关背景信息的激活与整合到底是即时发生抑或延时进行这一问题进行了探讨。研究所用的阅读材料都包含一个目标句,它与局部语境一致,但与前文提供的背景信息冲突或无关。实验一采用自定步速逐行阅读技术,考察了一致性条件以及句子结束的标记（即句号）是否存在对目标句阅读时间的影响。结果发现,句子结束的标记是否存在并不影响目标句整合加工的进行。实验二运用眼动追踪技术着重探讨信息整合加工能否在目标句关键区中即时进行,实验条件仍为当前信息与背景信息的一致性,重点考察其对目标句中关键前区、关键区及关键后区的作用。结果表明,自变量的操纵导致关键区中反映初次加工的指标产生可靠的效应。这一结果表明中文语篇理解中整合加工的过程开始得非常迅速,是一个即时引发、而非延时进行的过程     

Word length effects on novel words: Evidence from eye movements

The present study investigated the effects of word length on eye movement behavior during initial processing of novel words while reading. Adult skilled readers’ eye movements were monitored as they read novel or known target words in sentence frames with neutral context preceding the target word. Comparable word length effects on all single-fixation measures for novel and known words suggested that both types of words were subject to similar initial encoding strategies. The impact of the absence of an existing lexical entry emerged in multiple first-pass fixation measures in the form of interactions between word length (long and short) and word type (novel and known). Specifically, readers spent significantly more first-pass time refixating long novel targets than short novel targets; however, the first-pass time spent refixating known controls did not differ as a function of length. Implications of these findings for models of eye movement control while reading, as well as for vocabulary acquisition in reading, are discussed.     

Meaning construction and integration in children with hydrocephalus

Text comprehension processes were investigated in children with hydrocephalus, a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with good word decoding, but deficient reading comprehension. In Experiment 1, hydrocephalus and control groups were similar in processes related to activating word meanings and using context to enhance meaning. The hydrocephalus group was poorer at suppressing contextually irrelevant meanings. In Experiment 2, the hydrocephalus group had difficulty integrating information from an earlier read sentence to understand a new sentence as textual distance between the two propositions increased, suggesting difficulty in reactivation processes related to comprehension. Results are discussed in relation to cognitive and neurocognitive models of comprehension.