Noordman, L. G., Vonk, W., & Kempff, H. J. (1992). Causal inferences during the reading of expository texts. Journal of Memory and Language, 31(5), 573-590.

Noordman, L.; Vonk, W.; Kempff, H.

1992

Noordman, L. G., Vonk, W., & Kempff, H. J. (1992). Causal inferences during the reading of expository texts. Journal of Memory and Language, 31(5), 573-590.

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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.

The absence of a difference in reading time data suggests that the inferences were not made during reading. This result was quite unexpected. The assumption that the inference is made immediately when reading the because sentence may be too strong. But the reading time for the senctence following the because sentence did not give evidence for an inference process either.

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