title: Verbal Ability, Argument Order, and Attitude Formation.
abstract: The current study explored the interaction of verbal ability and presentation order on readers' attitude formation when presented with two-sided arguments. Participants read arguments for and against compulsory voting and genetic engineering, and attitudes were assessed before and after reading the passages. Participants' verbal ability was measured, combining vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skill. Results suggested that low verbal-ability participants were more persuaded by the most recent set of arguments whereas high verbal-ability participants formed attitudes independent of presentation order. Contrary to previous literature, individual differences in the personality traitneed for cognitiondid not interact with presentation order. The results suggest that verbal ability is an important moderator of the effect of presentation order when formulating opinions from complex prose.
authors.affiliation: Analytics and Informatics, Cancer Care Ontario, Toronto ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Mindaugas
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mozuraitis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Craig G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Chambers
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Meredyth
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daneman
keywords: argument integration; argument order; attitude formation; need for cognition; persuasion; verbal ability