title: Character profiles and the activation of predictive inferences.
abstract: Most evidence indicates that with supportive context, predictive inferences do become activated. The present experiments were designed to investigate whether the characteristics of the protagonist can mitigate against activation of a predictive inference, even when the immediately preceding context supports it. Participants read passages containing a detailed description of characteristics of the protagonist. The characteristics were either consistent, inconsistent, or neutral with respect to a subsequent predictive inference. This character information was followed by a context that supported the predictive inference. Experiment 1 demonstrated that predictive inferences were activated, except when they conflicted with the characteristics of the protagonist. Experiment 2 demonstrated that when an inference was activated, it was also instantiated into the representation of the text. These results are discussed in terms of the memory-based view of text processing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA. kelly.peracchi@unh.edu
authors.forename: Kelly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Peracchi
authors.forename: Edward J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: O'Brien
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D002605:Character; D032882:Comprehension; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning