Testing psychological theories about inference making

Two contrasting views about elaborative inferences in text comprehension are that they occur as the text is read and that they are deferred until they are made necessary by a question about the inferable information. This paper develops these views in greater detail and examines some of their consequences. The model of memory performance underlying the first of these theories has two quite different interpretations: the standard one and one in which inferable information, whether it is implicit or explicit in a text, is not encoded into memory for content. Two experiments are reported. The results are not consistent with the most straightforward interpretation of the claim that inferences are always deferred. However, that theory can be modified so that it makes the same predictions as its rivals. The various interpretations of the formal model underlying all three accounts of inference making can be distinguished only in terms of parsimony, explanatory adequacy, and their ability to handle results from other experimental paradigms, such as sentence verification.     

Evidence of immediate activation of gender information from a social role name

Two experiments investigated whether the stereotypical gender of a character is encoded immediately into the discourse representation and influences later comprehension. In Experiment 1 people read, and were confused by, a short story in which an incongruity arises at the end if the gender of a character introduced by a social role name has been inferred. In Experiment 2 online measures confirmed that readers were slower to read the final clause of the passage. In addition, a follow-up verification question revealed that these readers did not immediately resolve the inconsistency by inferring the appropriate gender for the role term. These findings provide strong evidence for gender activation at the time that a role name is encoded. The implications of these results for the mental representation of gender information and for constraints on inference during text comprehension are discussed.     

Are inferences from stereotyped role names to characters' gender made elaboratively?

Two experiments provided evidence that gender stereotype inferences from role names--for example, that a surgeon is (probably) male--are made in a forward, elaborative, direction. We used sentences in which a person's gender was never made explicit, but was implied in two different ways. The two ways were by the use of a role name, and by mentioning an item of clothing (e.g., a bikini) or a biological characteristic (e.g., giving birth) that is typically associated with females or males. The two pieces of information (role name and clothing/biological characteristic) were presented in different orders in the two experiments. In both cases a mismatch between the associated genders slowed reading, showing that gender information has been activated. It is argued that if an inference about gender is made on the basis of the second piece of information, hence slowing comprehension, it is unlikely that the inference about gender based on the first piece of information was not made immediately.     

Source monitoring and false memories in children: relation to certainty and executive functioning

We presented children aged 6, 8, and 10 years with a video and then an audio tape about a dog named Mick. Some information was repeated in the two sources and some was unique to one source. We examined: (a) children's hit rate for remembering whether events occurred and their tendency to make false alarms, (b) their memory for the context in which events occurred (source monitoring), (c) their certainty about hits, false alarms, and source, and (d) whether working memory and inhibition were related to hits, false alarms, and source monitoring. The certainty ratings revealed deficits in children's understanding of when they had erred on source questions and of when they had made false alarms. In addition, inhibitory ability accounted for unique variance in the ability to avoid false alarms and in some kinds of source monitoring but not hits. In contrast, working memory tended to correlate with all forms of memory including hits.     

Norms on the gender perception of role nouns in Czech,English, French,German, Italian,Norwegian, and Slovak

We collected norms on the gender stereotypicality of an extensive list of role nouns in Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Slovak, to be used as a basis for the selection of stimulus materials in future studies. We present a Web-based tool (available at https://www.unifr.ch/lcg/) that we developed to collect these norms and that we expect to be useful for other researchers, as well. In essence, we provide (a) gender stereotypicality norms across a number of languages and (b) a tool to facilitate cross-language as well as cross-cultural comparisons when researchers are interested in the investigation of the impact of stereotypicality on the processing of role nouns.     

Book reviews

Ellis, A. W. (Ed.). Progress in the psychology of language, Vols 1 and 2. London: Erlbaum Associates. 1985. Pp. vii+247 (Vol.1), v+274 (Vol.2). ISBN 0-86377-027-4 (Vol.1), 0-86377-028-2(Vol.2). £19.65. each.

Eysenck, M.W. A hondbook of cognitive psychology. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1984. Pp. 417. ISBN 0-86377-016-9. Hardback £26.95; paperback £8.95.

Roy, E. A. (Ed.). Neuropsychological studies of apraxia and related disorders. Amstrdam: North olland. 185 Pp. 414. ISN 0-444-87669-3. $60.00.

Fischer, K. W. and Lazerson, A. Human development frm conception through adolescence. New York: W. H. Freman. 1984. Pp. 747. ISBN 9-7167-1575-9. £24.95.

Sloboda, J. A. The musical mind. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. Pp. vii+291. ISBN 0-19-852114-6 (hardback) £20; ISBN 0-19-852128-6 (paperback) £9.65.

Howell, P., Cross, I. and West, R. Musical structure and cognition. London: Academic Press. Pp. xiv+ 338. ISBN 0-12-357170-7. £44.     

Book reviews

Lea, S. E. G., Tarpy, R. M., & Webley, P. (1987). The individual in the economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 627 + xxiv. ISBN 0-521-26872-9. £39.50 (Hardback). ISBN 0-521-317014. £13.95 (Paperback).

Davey, G. & Cullen, C. (Eds.) (1988). Human operant conditioning and behaviour modifcution. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. x + 270. ISBN 0-471-91637-4. £29.50.

Commons, M. L., Mazur, J. E., Nevin, J. A. & Rachlin, H. (Eds.). (1987), Quantitative analyses of behavior. Vol. 5: The efect of delay and of intervening events on reinforcement value. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp. 344. ISBN 0-89859-800-1. £31.00.

Pearce, J. M. (1987). An introduction to animal cognition. Hove and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp. 328. ISBN 0-86377-0568 (hardback) 219.95; ISBN 0-86377457-6 (paperback) £9.95.

Archer, J. (1988). The behavioural biology of aggression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. x + 257. ISBN 0-521-34790-4. £9.95 (paperback).

Greenberg, G. and Tobach, E. (Eds.) (1987). Cognition, language, and consciousness: Integrative tevels. The T. C. Schneirla Conference Series. Volume 2. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp. ix + 301. ISBN 0-89859-7224. £27.50.

Mook, D.G. (1987). Motivation: The organisation of action. New York: Norton. Pp. xxii + 586. ISBN 0-393-95474-9. £12.95 (hardback).

Frank, H. (Ed.) (1987). Man and wolf: Advances, issues and problems in captive wow research. Dordrecht: Dr. W. Junk. Pp. xviii + 439. ISBN 90-6193-614-4. £103.25 (hardback).     

Book reviews

Thomassen, A., Keuss, P. and van Galen, G. (Eds.). Motor aspects of handwiriting. Amsterdam: North-Holland. 1984. Pp 354. ISBN 0444-86774-0. $50.

Klatskyk, R. L. Memory and awareness. New York: W. H. Freeman. 1984. Pp. 155. ISBN 0-7167-1600-3. £9.95.

Longman Dictionary of Psychology and Psychiatry. New York: Longman. 1984. ISBN 0-582-28257, pp 816, £46.00.

Kintsch, W., Miller, J. R., and Polson, P. G. Methods and tactics in cognitive seience. Hilisadale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1984. Pp. xii+324. ISBN 0-89859-372-1. £27.50.

Dubery, F. and Williats, J. Perspective and other drawing systems. London: The Herbert Press. 1983. Pp. 128. ISBN 0-906969 -25-5. £4.95.

Morris, P. E. and Hampson, P. J. Imagery and consciousness. London: Academic Press. 1983. Pp. 341. ISBN 0-12-507680-0. $36.50.

Bundy, A. The computer modelling of mathematical reasoning. London: Academic Press. 1983. Pp. 322. ISBN 0-12-141252-0. $15.00.

Jeeves, M. A. and Greer, G. B. Analysis of structural learning. London: Academic Press. 1983. Pp. 265. ISBN 0-12-382080-4. $40.00.

Taylor, I. and Taylor, M. M. The psychology of reading. New York: Academic Press, 1983. Pp. 511. ISBN 0-12-684080-6 $29.50.

Wade, N. J. (Ed.). Brewster and Wheatstone on vision. London: Academic Press. 1984. Pp. 358. ISBN 0-12-729550-X. $39.00.

Harre, R. and Lamb, R. The encyclopedic dictionary of psychology. Oxford: Blackwell. 1983. ISBN 0-631-12663-5. £55.00.

Kail, R. and Spear, N. E. (Eds.). Comparative perspectives on the development of memory. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1984. Pp. x+ 374. ISBN 0-89859-317-4. £37.50.

R. Hockey (Ed.). Stress and fatigue in human performance. London: Wiley. 1983. ISBN 0-471 10-265-2. £16.50.

Sarris, V. and Parducci, A. (Eds.). Perspectives in psychological experimentation: Toward the year 2000. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1984. Pp. 370. ISBN 0-89859-272-9. £33.30.