Schwanenflugel, P. J., & Stowe, R. W. (1989). Context availability and the processing of abstract and concrete words in sentences. Reading Research Quarterly, 24(1), 114-126.

Schwanenflugel, P.; Stowe, R.

1989

Schwanenflugel, P. J., & Stowe, R. W. (1989). Context availability and the processing of abstract and concrete words in sentences. Reading Research Quarterly, 24(1), 114-126.

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Studied the influence of a sentence context on the processing of abstract (AB) and concrete (CON) words, using a total of 38 native English-speaking college students. In Exp 1, Ss completed a word-naming task in which AB and CON words were presented in a meaningful or neutral sentence context. In Exp 2, Ss judged whether AB and CON words were meaningful sentence completions; the words were presented in a meaningful or nonmeaningful context. Results supported a context availability view: AB words were comprehended more slowly than CON words when presented in nonsupportive contexts because it was more difficult to retrieve the associated contextual knowledge necessary for comprehension.

In sum, the results of this experiment show that concreteness effects can be found in naming as well as lexical decision tasks. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that concreteness effects are not attributable solely to the decision component of lexical decision tasks. Rather these concreteness effects occur early in the processing of words. The contextual benefits displayed also appear to have their effects at an early stage in word processing.

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