M. Dolores Castillo

Predictive inferences occur on‐line, but with delay: Convergence of naming and reading times

Naming and word reading times were used to investigate the time course of predictive inferences. Priming contexts were followed to disambiguating sentences in which a target word either confirmed or disconfirmed the consequence suggested by the context. In Experiment 1, sentences were presented word by word at a predetermined pace; readers pronounced the target word, which appeared either 500 or 1250 ms after the onset of the last word in the priming context. In Experiment 2, the participants read sentences one to four words at a time using the self‐paced moving‐window technique; reading times for the target word, the posttarget region, and the last word in the disambiguating sentence were collected. There was facilitation (a) in naming the confirming target word when it was primed in the 1250‐ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), but not in the 500‐ms SOA; and (b) in reading the confirming target word plus the posttarget region (spill‐over effect), but not in the target word itself. These results suggest t...

Selective interpretation in anxiety: Uncertainty for threatening events

The role of event uncertainty on inferences predictive of threat was investigated in high and low trait anxious individuals. Participants read context sentences predicting threat or nonthreat outcomes. They subsequently named target words that were consistent with or unrelated to prediction. In Experiment 1, with predictability relatively low, anxious participants showed clear threat bias in their inferences: Although nonthreat targets were unaffected by context, shorter naming latencies were found for threat target words that followed a threat predicting context. A low anxiety group showed an opposite effect, that is, facilitation only for nonthreat words, suggesting an avoidance (of threat) bias. In Experiment 2, under higher predictability, this bias disappeared, as both high and low anxious groups performed similarly. The relevance of these data for different models of selective processing in anxiety is discussed. Of particular pertinence is the finding that, with increasing stimulus threat, low anxious participants no longer show avoidance; instead, they infer threat in a way similar to the high anxious. This suggests that the difference between the high and the low anxious persons resides in the threshold at which stimulus threat input is processed.

Mood congruent Bias in Interpretation of Ambiguity Strategic Processes and Temporary Activation

Three experiments investigated the tendency of high-anxiety individuals to interpret ambiguous information in a threatening fashion. Priming ambiguous sentences (concerned with ego-threat, physical-threat, or non-threat events) were presented, followed by a disambiguating sentence in which a target word either confirmed or disconfirmed the consequence implied by the priming context. The sentences were presented word-by-word at a predetermined pace. Subjects read the sentences and pronounced the target word (naming task), which appeared either 500 msec or 1,250 msec after the onset of the last word (pre-target word) in the priming context. Results indicated that high-anxiety subjects named target words confirming threats faster than low-anxiety subjects, relative to non-threat words. Furthermore, this interpretative bias is: (a) strategic, rather than automatic, as it occurred with a 1,250-msec SOA, but not with a 500-msec SOA; (b) temporary, as it was found under evaluative stress conditions increasing state anxiety, but not with non-stress; and (c) specific to ego-threats, as it happened with ambiguous information concerning self-esteem and social evaluation, rather than with physical-threat-related information.

Interpretation Bias in Test Anxiety: The Time Course of Predictive Inferences

The time course of the bias in predictive inferencing as a function of anxiety was examined. Ambiguous sentences (concerned with ego-threat, physicalthreat, or nonthreat events) were presented, followed by disambiguating sentences in which a target word either confirmed or disconfirmed the consequences implied by the ambiguous context. High- and low-anxiety subjects read the sentences at their own pace with the moving-window procedure. Effects on word reading times at different points were measured. Priming effects occurred for high-anxiety subjects when reading disambiguating ego-threat-related sentences: There was greater relative facilitation for confirming than for disconfirming ego-threat versions in high-anxiety subjects, compared with physical-threat and nonthreat versions, and with low-anxiety subjects. Because these effects were not observed in the target word itself but in the post-target region and the last word of the disambiguating sentence, we concluded that the bias towards ego-threat predi...

On-line predictive inferences in reading: Processing timeduring versusafter the priming context

Prior research suggests that predictive inferences take time to construct on-line. The present study examines the relative contribution of time available during and after reading an inducing context. In six experiments, we manipulated the presentation rate of the context and the delay between the onset of the last word in the context and a target word. A predicting, or a control, sentence context was followed by a target word, which represented the predicted event or an unlikely event. The results indicated that increasing the time available during reading of the context improved comprehension of explicit information, but it did not affect construction of inferences. In contrast, increasing the delay at the end of the context did not affect explicit comprehension, but it enhanced the probability of inferences, as revealed by shorter latencies in naming the predictable target word after the inducing context, relative to the control context. These findings show that readers defer making predictive inferences until 1 sec after the sentence context has been read, regardless of the time available when they are processing the context.

Bias in Predictive Inferences During Reading

Six experiments examined a bias in the probability and the time course of predictive inferences as a function of individual differences in emotional proneness and the adaptive importance of stimuli. Participants high or low in trait anxiety read context sentences predictive of potentially threatening events or nonthreat events. The contexts were followed by a target word to be named, which represented the predicted event or an unlikely event. Context constraints, the context presentation rate, and the interval between the context and the target word were manipulated. Evidence for inferences involved facilitation (shorter latencies) in naming the inferential target words following the predicting context, relative to when these words followed a control context. Predictive inferences were activated when there was congruence between anxiety and the threat content of stimuli, regardless of context constraints. The time course of predictive inferences was constant across context presentation rate; they occurred with considerable delay (1,050 ms) after the context but not earlier (i.e., 50 or 550 ms). We discuss the relevance and the integration of these findings with current models and research on inference processing.

Foveal vs. Parafoveal Attention-Grabbing Power of Threat-related Information

We investigated whether threat words presented in attended (foveal) and in unattended (parafoveal) locations of the visual field are attention grabbing. Neutral (nonemotional) words were presented at fixation as probes in a lexical decision task. Each probe word was preceded by 2 simultaneous prime words (1 foveal, 1 parafoveal), either threatening or neutral, for 150 ms. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the primes and the probe was either 300 or 1,000 ms. Results revealed slowed lexical decision times on the probe when primed by an unrelated foveal threat word at the short (300-ms) delay. In contrast, parafoveal threat words did not affect processing of the neutral probe at either delay. Nevertheless, both neutral and threat parafoveal words facilitated lexical decisions for identical probe words at 300-ms SOA. This suggests that threat words appearing outside the focus of attention do not draw or engage cognitive resources to such an extent as to produce interference in the processing of concurrent or subsequent neutral stimuli. An explanation of the lack of parafoveal interference is that semantic content is not extracted in the parafovea.

Strategic influence on the time course of predictive inferences in reading

In the present study, we investigated how reading strategies affect the time course of online predictive inferences. Participants read sentences under instructions either to anticipate the outcomes of described events or to understand the sentences. These were followed by a target word to be named, with stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 500 or 1,000 msec (50- or 550-msec interstimulus interval, respectively). Sentences either were predictive of events or were lexically matched control sentences. There was facilitation in naming latencies for predictable target words in the strategic-anticipation condition at both SOAs, but not in the read-to-understand condition, with a significant improvement in the former condition in comparison with the latter. This suggests that predictive inferences, which are typically considered to be resource demanding, can be speeded up by specific goals in reading. Moreover, this can occur at no cost to comprehension of explicit information, as was revealed by a comprehension test.

Processing of “unattended” threat-related information: Role of emotional content and context

Unpleasant, pleasant, or neutral visual scenes served as a context for the presentation of threat-related, positive, and neutral words. On each trial, 2 simultaneous prime words (one foveal, i.e., at fixation, and one parafoveal, i.e., 2.2° apart) appeared for 150 ms, followed by a foveally presented probe word in a lexical decision task. Results showed facilitation in response times for probe threat words when primed by an identical parafoveal word, in comparison with priming by an unrelated parafoveal word, and this effect was enhanced in an emotionally congruent unpleasant context. In contrast, no parafoveal effect appeared for positive words, even in a pleasant context. This reveals parallel processing of threat-related words outside the focus of attention.

Phonological coding in reading comprehension: The importance of individual differences

Abstract In two experiments, texts were presented word by word at a fixed pace to subjects high or low in test anxiety, under various concurrent interference conditions: no interference, articulatory suppression, finger tapping, unattended meaningful speech, reversed (meaningless) speech and nonword (meaningless) speech. High-anxiety subjects produced overt articulation more frequently than low-anxiety subjects, especially in the speech conditions. There was an interaction between anxiety and interference on comprehension performance: Conditions thought to interfere with phonological coding (i.e. articulatory suppression and nonword speech) were detrimental to comprehension for high but not for low-anxiety subjects; in contrast, there were no differences in comprehension performance as a function of anxiety under conditions causing no (proper) phonological interference (i.e. no interference, finger tapping and reversed speech). There were mixed results in the meaningful speech condition, partly attributab...