Sundermeier, B. A., Van Den Broek, P., & Zwaan, R. A. (2005). Causal coherence and the availability of locations and objects during narrative comprehension. Memory and Cognition, 33(3), 462-470.

Sundermeier ,B.; Van Den Broek, P.; Zwaan, R.

2005

Sundermeier, B. A., Van Den Broek, P., & Zwaan, R. A. (2005). Causal coherence and the availability of locations and objects during narrative comprehension. Memory and Cognition, 33(3), 462-470.

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The aim of this study was to examine whether locations of objects are encoded and available to the reader at different points in a narrative, depending on their causal relevance. Participants in five experiments read narratives in which the spatial relation between an object and its location either did or did not provide a causal explanation for a later critical event. Object and location target words were presented to the participants immediately before or after the critical event. Speeded recognition response times to target words demonstrated that both locations and objects were reactivated, but only after they became causally relevant. The results suggest that the causal structure of a text can influence the availability of spatial information and that at least some spatial relations are encoded during reading and are available to the reader when they are needed to build coherence.

The very small number of mentions in the control condition, along with the greater number of mentions in the causal version, supports the manipulation of the texts and furthermore suggests that readers, when given ample time and resources, reinstate object information only when this information is causally relevant by virtue of its spatial relation to the outcome of a story.

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