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 difference between the explicit and implicit condition was significant when the question referred to th because sentence. There aws no explicit-implicit difference for the other question. The results indicate that the goal of the reader, defined in terms of reading for a particulartopic, affects the on-line inference process.

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