Strategic influence on the time course of predictive inferences in reading.

Full Abstract

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.

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Author information

Author/s: Calvo, Manuel G (MG); Castillo, M Dolores (MD); Schmalhofer, Franz (F);

Affiliation: Department of Cognitive Psychology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. mgcalvo(-atsign-)ull.es

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Memory & cognition (Mem Cognit), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jan; vol 34 (issue 1) : pp 68-77

Dates: Created 2006/05/11; Completed 2006/07/18; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16686107, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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