Ritchey, K. A. (2011). How generalization inferences are constructed in expository text comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36(4), 280-288.

Ritchey, K.

2011

Ritchey, K. A. (2011). How generalization inferences are constructed in expository text comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36(4), 280-288.

Three questions regarding adult readers’ processing of generalization inferences (conceptually broad statements that subsume several specific statements) are investigated. College students (N = 193) read expository texts containing target statements that were consistent, inconsistent, or off-topic in relation to a generalization implied by one paragraph. Reading times were faster for consistent than inconsistent statements and faster for inconsistent than off-topic statements, indicating adult readers construct generalization inferences online during initial reading of a text and that the inference they construct is relatively narrow in scope. This pattern of faster reading time for consistent sentences occurred under different reading goals, suggesting generalization inferences are a pervasive component of expository text comprehension.

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