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Reports on 5 experiments with 234 Ss on backward causal inferences, which were signaled by the conjunction "because." These inferences served to justify the causal relation (CSR) expressed by the sentence. The texts were expository. Although the inferences were required for a good understanding of the CSR, they were not made during reading, as was indicated by reading and verification times in Exps 1 and 2 and judgments in Exp 3. However, Exps 4 and 5 showed that these inferences were made during reading if they were relevant to the purpose of reading. ...

Reports on 5 experiments with 234 Ss on backward causal inferences, which were signaled by the conjunction "because." These inferences served to justify the causal relation (CSR) expressed by the sentence. The texts were expository. Although the inferences were required for a good understanding of the CSR, they were not made during reading, as was indicated by reading and verification times in Exps 1 and 2 and judgments in Exp 3. However, Exps 4 and 5 showed that these inferences were made during reading if they were relevant to the purpose of reading. ...

This study examines the effects of pictures (screen captures and input devices), on documentation for (older) novices. Participants were 115 adults. They were given one of four types of manuals (with or without screen captures, and with or without input device depicted). There was no main effect of pictures, but there were statistically significant interactions between type of picture and the factors age and computer experience. As predicted, the most optimized designs -the ones presenting screen captures- moderated the negative effects of age. We argue that screen captures help reduce two problems in the cognitive area that are especially troublesome for ...

Expository text offers particular challenges to the reader because of the abstract and unfamiliar concepts that it presents and its distinctive structure. The present study had three interrelated aims: (1) It examined the impact of appropriate connectives on the reader's derivation of causal bridging inferences from expository text. (2) It scrutinised texts longer than the ones that we had previously examined (Singer, Harkness, & Stewart, 1997), which in turn made it possible to (3) evaluate the impact of position in the text on inference processing. In Experiments 1a and 1b with 68 and 64 college students respectively, a joint profile ...

Expository text offers particular challenges to the reader because of the abstract and unfamiliar concepts that it presents and its distinctive structure. The present study had three interrelated aims: (1) It examined the impact of appropriate connectives on the reader's derivation of causal bridging inferences from expository text. (2) It scrutinised texts longer than the ones that we had previously examined (Singer, Harkness, & Stewart, 1997), which in turn made it possible to (3) evaluate the impact of position in the text on inference processing. In Experiments 1a and 1b with 68 and 64 college students respectively, a joint profile ...

This paper provides experimental evidence suggesting that there are considerable differences in native language attainment, and that these are at least partially attributable to individual speakers' experience. Experiment 1 tested high academic attainment (hereafter, HAA) and low academic attainment (LAA) participants' comprehension using a picture selection task. Test sentences comprised passives and two variants of the universal quantification construction. Active constructions were used as a control condition. HAA participants performed at ceiling in all conditions; LAA participants performed at ceiling only on actives. As predicted by usage-based accounts, the order of difficulty of the four sentence types mirrored their frequency. ...

Evidence from 3 experiments reveals interference effects from structural relationships that are inconsistent with any grammatical parse of the perceived input. Processing disruption was observed when items occurring between a head and a dependent overlapped with either (or both) syntactic or semantic features of the dependent. Effects of syntactic interference occur in the earliest online measures in the region where the retrieval of a long-distance dependent occurs. Semantic interference effects occur in later online measures at the end of the sentence. Both effects endure in offline comprehension measures, suggesting that interfering items participate in incorrect interpretations that resist reanalysis. The ...

Evidence from 3 experiments reveals interference effects from structural relationships that are inconsistent with any grammatical parse of the perceived input. Processing disruption was observed when items occurring between a head and a dependent overlapped with either (or both) syntactic or semantic features of the dependent. Effects of syntactic interference occur in the earliest online measures in the region where the retrieval of a long-distance dependent occurs. Semantic interference effects occur in later online measures at the end of the sentence. Both effects endure in offline comprehension measures, suggesting that interfering items participate in incorrect interpretations that resist reanalysis. The ...

In Exp 1, 21 Ss read and recalled a series of 5 short stories in 1 of 4 plot and style combinations. The stories were written in 1 of 2 styles that consisted of opposing clause orders, tense forms, and descriptor forms. The Ss were able to learn the regularities of both the style and the plot over successive recalls. This is the first demonstration of style learning using an arbitrary novel style. In Exp 2, 48 Ss who, after 5 recalls, either generated a new story or listed the rules that had been followed by the stories read, included ...

In Exp 1, 21 Ss read and recalled a series of 5 short stories in 1 of 4 plot and style combinations. The stories were written in 1 of 2 styles that consisted of opposing clause orders, tense forms, and descriptor forms. The Ss were able to learn the regularities of both the style and the plot over successive recalls. This is the first demonstration of style learning using an arbitrary novel style. In Exp 2, 48 Ss who, after 5 recalls, either generated a new story or listed the rules that had been followed by the stories read, included ...