Gallini, J. K., & Spires, H. A. (1992). The influence of anaphoric relations and departures from story grammar structure on text processing. Reading Psychology, 13(2), 107-130.

Gallini, J.; Spires, H.

1992

Gallini, J. K., & Spires, H. A. (1992). The influence of anaphoric relations and departures from story grammar structure on text processing. Reading Psychology, 13(2), 107-130.

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This study examined the influence of story grammar structure and word repetition among adjacent or near-adjoining sentences on comprehension. 74 undergraduates were assigned randomly to 1 of 2 experimental conditions: a low-inference (LIF) condition that used word and concept repetition, or a high-inference (HIF) group that used prenomial, substitution, and ellipsis anaphora. Ss in each condition read 2 2-page narratives and estimated the number of multiple-choice questions about the passage they could answer correctly. Ss also completed a free-recall task and a multiple-choice test about each passage. Overall, Ss in the LIF group scored relatively higher on comprehension measures than Ss in the HIF group. Ss in the LIF groups also manifested a greater ability to accurately recall important ideational units at both micro and macro levels. LIF Ss were more accurate in predicting their performance on both passages.

The study supported the importance of bridging inference in the comprehension process. The group given explicit bridging text cues scored relatively higher on comprehension measures than the group required to generate inferences from implicit cues. Also, the low-inference group manifested a greater ability to accurately recall important ideational units at a micro level as well as at a relational or macro level. Thus, it appears that the fewer inferencing demands provided more time for storing information from the microstructure and macrostructure of the text.

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