language and reading 3

Question 1

what are logical inferences?

Answer 1

only depend on the meaning of words

Question 2

what are bridging inferences?

Answer 2

establish coherence between the current part of the text and preceding text

Question 3

what are elaborative inferences?

Answer 3

embellish or add details to the text by making use of our world knowledge

Question 4

what is the constructionist approach to understanding text?

Answer 4

readers typically construct a relatively complete ‘mental model’ of the situation and events referred to in the text

Question 5

who proposed the constructionist approach?

Answer 5

Bransford, Barclay and Franks

Question 6

what is an implication of the constructionist approach?

Answer 6

numerous elaborative inferences are drawn while reading

Question 7

what happened in Bransford, Barclay and Franks’ study?

Answer 7

participants were told
‘Three turtles rested on a floating log, and a fish swam beneath them.’
then given a test sentence
‘Three turtles rested on a floating log, and a fish swam beneath it.’
participants thought that these sentences were the same, suggesting that they inferred the fish swam under the log

Question 8

who provided supporting research for the constructionist approach?

Answer 8

Bransford, Barclay and Franks

Question 9

who provided evidence against the constructionist approach?

Answer 9

Dooling and Christiaansen

Question 10

what happened in Dooling and Christiaansen’s study?

Answer 10

participants read a story about a ruthless dictator
one week later, given a test of recognition memory
just before this, they were told the story was actually about Adolf Hitler
findings showed that participants mistakenly recognised sentences relevant to Hitler that had not appeared in the original story

Question 11

who proposed the minimalist hypothesis?

Answer 11

Mackoon and Ratcliff

Question 12

what does the minimalist hypothesis suggest?

Answer 12

inferences are either automatic or strategic

Question 13

what happens in automatic inferences?

Answer 13

some establish local coherence, others rely on information stated explicitly in the text

Question 14

what happens in strategic inferences?

Answer 14

formed according to the reader’s goals

Question 15

how was support found for the minimalist hypothesis?

Answer 15

one group was instructed to read a text for comprehension
another group was told to try and anticipate what might happen next
the text described a boy getting out his wallet after having dinner, and the target word was paid
had to say this word out loud as accurately and fast as possible
group 2 drew more elaborative inferences= number of inferences made by a reader are influenced by whether they have a goal when reading

Question 16

who provided evidence against the minimalist hypothesis?

Answer 16

Poynor and Morris

Question 17

what happened in Poynor and Morris’ evidence?

Answer 17

texts were compared where the goal of the main character was implicitly/explicitly stated

later on in the text, there was a sentence which either did or didn’t match the goal of the character

readers took longer to read the sentence for an inconsistent action, regardless of whether the goal was explicit or implicit

therefore the reader inferred the goal in both cases

Question 18

who proposed the event indexing model?

Answer 18

Zwaan and Radvansky

Question 19

what are the 5 dimensions in the event indexing model?

Answer 19

the protagonist
temporality
causality
spatiality
intentionality

Question 20

what is the protagonist?

Answer 20

the central character/actor in the present even compared to the previous one

Question 21

what is temporality?

Answer 21

the relationship between the times at which the present and previous events occured

Question 22

what is causality?

Answer 22

the causal relationship of the current event and the previous one

Question 23

what is spatiality?

Answer 23

the relationship between the spatial setting of the previous one

Question 24

what is intentionality?

Answer 24

the relationship between the character’s goals and the present event

Question 25

who provided evidence for the event indexing model?

Answer 25

Claus and Kelter

Question 26

what happened in Claus and Kelter’s study?

Answer 26

participants presented with passages presented in chronological or non-chronological order

the duration of the second event was either short or long

the accessibility of the first event in memory was tested at the end of the passage

found that the duration of the second event influenced the speed in which the first event could be accessed

event 1 was less accessible if the text implied that it occurred a relatively long time ago

suggests that the readers put the events in the correct chronological order

Question 27

what is the strength of the event indexing model?

Answer 27

identifies key processes involved in creating and updating situation models

Question 28

what is the weakness of the event indexing model?

Answer 28

doesn’t suggest the internal representation built by readers and listeners to understand language

Question 29

what are the three theories of discourse processing?

Answer 29

constructionist approach
minimalist approach
event-indexing model

Question 30

what are schemas?

Answer 30

mental structures used to organise the world

Question 31

what are examples of the schemas stored in long term memory?

Answer 31

scripts
frames

Question 32

what are scripts?

Answer 32

deal with knowledge about particular events and consequences of events

Question 33

what are frames?

Answer 33

knowledge structures relating to an aspect of the world, consisting of fixed structural information and slots for variable information

Question 34

what was Bransford and Johnson’s evidence for schemas?

Answer 34

participants could not understanding the meaning of a text about washing clothes until it was given this title

Question 35

what is the experimental simulations approach?

Answer 35

same sensorimotor representations that are activated while interacting with the environment are re-enacted or simulated when reading about a similar experience

Question 36

what are the three aspects of the experimental simulations approach?

Answer 36

action
perception
emotion

Question 37

what is the role of action in the experimental simulations approach?

Answer 37

content of a piece of text can facilitate certain body actions

Question 38

what is the role of perception in the experimental simulations approach?

Answer 38

content of a piece of text can evoke perceptual simulations or imagery

Question 39

how does eveidence from neuroimaging support the experimental simulations approach?

Answer 39

brain regions activated by reading about a particular event are the same as those activated by performing the action described

Question 40

what evidence provides a link between language and emotion?

Answer 40

participants had to judge positive and negative words by pushing or pulling a lever
push responses were faster for negative stimuli
pull responses were faster for positive stimuli

Question 41

what is the affect movement compatibility effect?

Answer 41

positive emotional stimuli prime approach behaviours
negative emotional stimuli prepare the body to avoid

Question 42

what is affect?

Answer 42

a word itself can make you experience the emotion that it conveys
this is demonstrated in the activation of certain facial muscles
inducing emotional states can influence language comprehension

Question 43

what are the strengths of the simulations approach?

Answer 43

provides a framework to explain internal representation from readers to understand language

increasing evidence that perception/action/emotion are involved in language comprehension

Question 44

what are the weaknesses of the experimental simulations approach?

Answer 44

not known whether the experimental simulations approach applies under all circumstances