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.

2

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 between the conditions for the reading times of the target sentences suggests that the nonsignificance of the difference found in experiment 1 is indeed reliable and indicated that readers do not make this type of causal inference during reading.

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