Anne E. Cook

What is readily available during reading? A memory‐based view of text processing

Previous research has demonstrated that readers routinely maintain both local and global coherence. Four experiments are presented that test 2 views of how relevant global information becomes readily available to the reader. According to 1 view, readers make use of discourse pointers. These pointers restrict reactivation of backgrounded information to information that is scenario relevant. In contrast, according to the memory‐based text processing view, backgrounded information becomes available through a passive, fast‐acting resonance process. Information becomes available as a function of its degree of featural overlap with the current contents of working memory; relevance of that information is not a factor. The results of all 4 experiments demonstrated that backgrounded information became readily available to the reader if it shared features in common with the current contents of working memory. This occurred independent of whether the information was relevant or thematically related; comprehension wa...

What Have We Been Missing? The Role of General World Knowledge in Discourse Processing.

In recent years, memory-based and explanation-based theories have dominated the discourse processing literature. Numerous studies have been conducted to show support for each of the two views. Most of these studies have manipulated factors in the episodic memory trace of texts, without a great deal of focus on how general world knowledge impacts processing. We describe several studies from the reading comprehension literature that show strong effects of general world knowledge. We also present a framework that can account for both episodic and general world knowledge effects, and that may be used to reconcile the memory-based and explanation-based views.

Semantic and Episodic Effects on Bridging Inferences

In 3 experiments, participants read pairs of sentences requiring a bridging inference between a category in 1 sentence and a typical or atypical exemplar of that category in the following sentence. In Experiments 2 and 3, the critical pair of sentences was preceded by several lines of text in which the exemplar was introduced and then backgrounded by a shift in topic. Accessibility of the earlier mentioned exemplar was manipulated by varying the distance between the first and the subsequent mention of the exemplar, or by varying the elaboration of the exemplar when first introduced into the text. Eye fixations in Experiment 1 revealed that the bridging inference was affected by typicality, that the process began at the earliest opportunity but was not completed when the eye left the exemplar word. In Experiments 2 and 3, both typicality and episodic accessibility influenced reading time. These effects are discussed in terms of several models of the underlying process.

Updating Situation Models: Reply to Zwaan and Madden (2004)

A basic component of the comprehension process during reading involves the continual integration of incoming information with the evolving discourse representation; that is, the representation is continually updated as new information is introduced. O’Brien, Rizzella, Albrecht, and Halleran (1998) contrasted two competing views of this updating process: the memory-based text processing view and the here-and-now view. According to the here-and-now view, readers maintain a continually updated model of the situation described by the text within the here and now or active portion of the discourse model. Incoming information is checked against the here-and-now portion of the discourse model and is used to update that model. Thus, unless information is introduced that conflicts with the current model

Effectiveness of Pupil Diameter in a Probable-Lie Comparison Question Test for Deception

Purpose. There were three objectives of this study: (1) To assess the possibility of using pupil diameter as an index of deception in the context of a comparison question polygraph test. (2) To determine if pupil diameter would make a significant contribution to an optimal multivariate classification equation in combination with the traditional predictor variables used in field polygraph practice. (3) We explored the possibility of replacing one or more of the traditional predictor variables with pupil diameter. Methods. We used a laboratory mock crime experiment with 24 participants, half of whom stole

Processing an Anaphor When There Is No Antecedent

20 (US) from a secretarys purse. Participants were tested with a comparison question test modelled after standard field practice. Physiological measures were taken with laboratory quality instrumentation. Features were extracted from the physiological measures. Those features were subjected to a number of different statistical analyses. Results. Innocent participants showed larger increases in pupil diameter in response to probable-lie questions than to relevant questions. Guilty participants did not show differential responding to the question types. The additional of pupil diameter to a multivariate classification model approached, but did not reach significance. Subsequent analyses suggest that pupil diameter might be used to replace the traditional relative blood pressure measure. Conclusions. Pupil diameter was found to be a significant predictor variable for deception. Pupil diameter may be a possible replacement for the traditional relative blood pressure measure. Additional research to explore that possibility would seem to be warranted.

Processing anomalous anaphors

In 5 experiments, participants read passages with sentences containing a categorical anaphoric reference. The exemplar referred to was either present in the passage, present but negated, or absent from the passage. Reading times were at least as fast when the exemplar was absent as when it was present, and reading times were slowest when the exemplar was negated. Naming and recognition probe data from several experiments demonstrated that the exemplar was reactivated in both the exemplar-present and exemplar-negated conditions. The results support a 2-stage process in which a rapid sample of information reactivated by the anaphoric reference determines whether a second, slower, integration stage will be initiated.

Revisiting effects of contextual strength on the subordinate bias effect: Evidence from eye movements

Previous researchers have demonstrated that readers may engage in shallow, or incomplete, processing when the semantic overlap between current information and previously encountered information is high. The present study investigated whether these effects would occur during processing of unambiguous noun phrase anaphors, for which there was only a single possible antecedent. Participants read passages containing anaphors that were correct, incorrect but highly related, or incorrect and low-related, with respect to previously encountered information. The time required to process the anaphor was a function of the goodness of fit between the anaphor and the antecedent; anaphors that were incorrect but highly related to the antecedent were processed more quickly than those that were incorrect and low-related. This occurred regardless of the distance between the anaphor and the antecedent. However, reading times results from a spillover sentence indicated that readers subsequently validated the anaphor against the information in memory, resulting in continued processing difficulty for both the incorrect-high- and –low-related anaphor conditions. The results are consistent with a three-stage comprehension model in which information is activated, integrated on the basis of its goodness of fit with the contents of working memory, and then validated against information in long-term memory.

Foregrounding Effects during Reading, Revisited.

In this study, we examined two issues regarding the role of context in ambiguity resolution: whether access to the contextually appropriate meaning is exhaustive or selective, and whether the contextually inappropriate meaning is inhibited. Participants read texts in which a biased ambiguous word was encountered twice while their eye movements were measured. The context preceding the first encounter varied in the extent to which the subordinate meaning was supported; the context preceding the second encounter always supported the dominant meaning. The findings suggest that lexical access is exhaustive but can be influenced by context, and that the subsequent accessibility of the contextually inappropriate meaning is unaffected by previous selection processes. The results were interpreted in terms of the assumptions of the reordered-access model and activation mechanisms that operate during reading.

Reading between the lines: implicit assessment of the association of parental attributions and empathy with abuse risk.

Previous researchers have argued that objects associated with a protagonist may be foregrounded, or held active, in memory. This study expanded on previous work by using an inconsistency paradigm to investigate the effects of protagonist association on object accessibility. Readers experienced more processing difficulty when a target sentence contradicted previously presented information about protagonist-associated objects than when the contradiction pertained to protagonist-dissociated objects. However, the results of a naming time study demonstrated that this effect was due to increases in accessibility of protagonist-associated objects, not continued increases in availability. A final experiment demonstrated that degree of association between the object and the protagonist does not influence object accessibility. The results provide additional evidence for, and a more refined explanation of, foregrounding effects during reading.