S1 (FriAM 1-65) - The Psychonomic Society

Saturday Noon Posters 4035–4040
formance in auditory lexical decision, but whether its influence extends
to other tasks such as shadowing remains controversial. In a first experiment,
we show that the emergence of the consistency effect depends
on the degree of lexical involvement in shadowing auditory words. Consistency
effects also emerged in two additional experiments using the
semantic and the gender categorization tasks. A last shadowing experiment
indicates that the magnitude of the orthographic effects reduces
when words are embedded in sentence contexts. Simulation works lead
us to propose that orthography does not necessarily mediate lexical access,
but that learning to read and write might cause phonological representations
to reflect the orthographic properties of words.
(4035)
Additional Evidence for Role of Focus Prosody in Silent Reading.
JENNIFER GROSS, Grand Valley State University, BRIAN BARTEK,
University of Michigan, & SAMANTHA RIECK & KYLE HAMPTON
BREDELL, Grand Valley State University—The implicit prosody hypothesis
(Fodor, 2002) contends that silent readers have a prosodic
“inner voice.” To test this, participants read short paragraphs, in which
select words were capitalized. For example, in the sentence, “Sam fell
out of the canoe,” either “SAM” or “FELL” appeared in caps. The
paragraph in which this sentence appeared manipulated whether
“Sam” or “fell” was new information (not previously mentioned), and
therefore in prosodic focus, or old information furnished in the story.
Participants judged (on a 5-point scale) the helpfulness of capped
words, under the ruse of helping an editor determine intentional from
nonintentional caps (caused by a computer virus). Experimental conditions—capitalized
words and congruency of context—were fully
crossed. Replicating and extending our previous work, participants
rated the “capped” words as more helpful, only when these target
words were “new” (i.e., prosodically focused) rather than “given,”
consistent with Selkirk’s (1995) theory of focus projection.
• DISCOURSE PROCESSES •
(4036)
An Electrophysiological Examination of Temporal Cue Use During
Discourse Comprehension. TALI DITMAN & PHILLIP J. HOL-
COMB, Tufts University, & GINA R. KUPERBERG, Tufts University
and MGH (sponsored by Phillip J. Holcomb)—To examine the time
course for the integration of temporal information into readers’ situation
models, the present study recorded event-related brain potentials
(ERPs) as participants read short scenarios with temporal continuities
(after one second), small shifts (after one minute), or large shifts (after
one year). Difficulty integrating temporal shifts into the present model
was examined by N400 amplitude at the point of the shift
(second/minute/year). Difficulty accessing information preceding the
shift was examined by N400 amplitude to a repeated noun-phrase
anaphor immediately following the shift. This type of anaphor is not
preferred as a referent for a salient antecedent. The results demonstrated
that participants had increased difficulty integrating large temporal
shifts into the preceding discourse model as evidenced by the
largest amplitude N400. Processing large temporal shifts also decreased
the accessibility of preceding information, making it appropriate
to employ a repeated noun-phrase anaphor, as evidenced by the
smallest amplitude N400.
(4037)
Before We Begin: The Consequences of Introductions on Processing
of Explanations. MICHAEL MENSINK, University of Minnesota,
DAVID N. RAPP, Northwestern University, PANAYIOTA
KENDEOU, McGill University, & R. BROOKE LEA, Macalester
College—Topics can be introduced in a variety of ways, but do particular
introductions influence how individuals process those topics?
We assessed the influence of introductions on participants’ reading of
brief scientific explanations. Participants read sixteen texts describing
basic scientific processes (e.g., mitosis, reflexes). Texts included
3-sentence introductions that (1) provided an engaging narrative in
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which a character needed to provide the explanation or (2) described
a technical rationale for why the explanation is worth reading about.
These manipulations were intended to emulate the engaging introductions
or technical remarks that often preface explanatory materials.
Participants took longer to read technical in comparison with narrative
introductions as they unfolded. However, participants took
longer to begin reading explanatory material following narrative in
comparison with technical introductions. Introductory content did not
differentially influence participants’ expectations as to their understanding
of the texts. Introductions may influence reader attention to
explanatory material without concomitant awareness of their effects.
(4038)
Three Information Functions of Headings. ROBERT F. LORCH, JR.,
University of Kentucky, JULIE LEMARIÉ, University of Toulouse, Le
Mirail, & WHITNEY C. O’ROURKE & SHAWN CANTY, University
of Kentucky—A recent theory of signaling distinguishes six “information
functions” performed by signaling devices. Signals may:
(1) demarcate structural boundaries in a text; (2) emphasize content;
(3) establish the function of a text subsection; (4) identify the topic of
a subsection; (5) provide a label for a subsection; and/or (6) communicate
organizational information. Three experiments isolated and
tested three of the hypothesized information functions using a simple
text search task. In Experiment 1, search times to locate target sentences
were faster if the text contained topic-identifying headings than
if the headings did not identify topics. In Experiment 2, search times
were faster if the questions identified the subsections in which the targets
were located. In Experiment 3, search times were faster if the
questions identified the numbers of the relevant subsections. Thus, the
experiments validate the information functions of topic identification,
labeling, and organization.
(4039)
The Influence of Reading Goals on Text Recall. JONATHAN
SCHUSTER & RUTHANN ATCHLEY, University of Kansas—This
research examined the manner in which reading goals and organizational
signals might act independently or interact with each other while reading
to influence text recall. Participants read texts, which contained
no signals, half signals, or full signals, and were assigned the goal of
either reading for school or reading for pleasure. Significant reading
goal differences were found, and there was a significant interaction
that involved organizational signals and reading goal for overall recall.
School goal participants recalled more information overall when
signals were present than did pleasure goal participants; both groups
were similar when signals were absent. Subsequently, we have also investigated
the possible relationship between reading goals and working
memory span to determine whether working memory span impacts
what reading goals are available and how they are utilized.
(4040)
Monitoring Situational Content and Continuity While Reading.
SARA GILLIAM & PETER W. FOLTZ, New Mexico State University,
& JOSEPH P. MAGLIANO, Northern Illinois University (sponsored
by Peter W. Foltz)—According to Zwaan, Langston, and Graesser’s
(1995) event-indexing model, readers monitor changes in a series of
critical dimensions: space, time, protagonist, causality, and goal.
However, before readers can monitor for continuities across dimensions,
they have to extract the situation model information that is present.
The goal of this study was to explore the extent to which readers
monitor both situational content and continuities while reading naturalistic
discourse. Participants read four naturalistic texts, and sentence
reading times were recorded. Discourse analyses were developed
to determine the situational content and continuity of each
sentence for characters, time, space, causality, and goals. The results
suggest that reading times are influenced more by situational continuity
than by content. Furthermore, consistent with prior research,
causality is the dimension that is most closely monitored. Although
readers may build representations based on situational content, mon-