ABSTRACTNarratives frequently represent perceptions that allow for multiple interpretations in terms of perspective: Perceptions can be interpreted from the narrator’s viewpoint as well as the character’s viewpoint. Two experiments examined the role of contextual viewpoint markers and verb tense in readers’ interpretation of such ambiguous perceptions. Whereas verb tense did not affect perceptual attributions in Experiment 1, viewpoint markers did: Readers tended to ascribe an ambiguous perception more strongly to the character in stories with (vs. without) a viewpoint marker in the context. This finding was replicated and extended in Experiment 2, which examined the scope of perceptual attributions by measuring readers’ interpretation of three subsequent ambiguous perceptions. Again, verb tense had no effect on perceptual attributions, whereas viewpoint markers did: Readers ascribed each of the three perceptions more strongly to the character in stories with (vs. without) a contextual viewpoint marker. These results advance our understanding of narrative perspective by revealing the influence of local linguistic viewpoint markers on readers’ interpretation of stories stretches to the discourse level.

ABSTRACTWe investigated how affective states influence expository text comprehension and whether text valence moderates the effects (i.e., mood congruency). In Experiment 1 participants were randomly assigned to a happy or sad affective state (elicited via films) before reading a positive or negative version of a scientific text on animal adaptations. Participants (n = 79) in the sad (film) group had higher scores on deep-reasoning (d = .312) but not surface-level questions on a subsequent multiple-choice comprehension assessment; there was also no evidence for mood congruence. Using a neutral version of the same text, in Experiment 2 participants (n = 52) in a fearful condition performed better on surface-level comprehension questions (d = .594) compared with a sad condition, but the groups were on par for deep-reasoning questions. Experiment 3 (n = 595) did not replicate the findings from Experiment 2 (no comprehension differences between the sad and fear groups) and there were no differences between the fear and happy groups. However, the sad group outperformed the happy group on deep-reasoning questions (d = .210), thereby replicating Experiment 1. The overall findings were confirmed after pooling the data from the three experiments to increase power.

This article refers to:Cultivating American- and Japanese-Style Relatedness Through Mother–Child Conversation

ABSTRACTIn some narratives one world is embedded within the main world of the story, which we refer to as the base world, and elements from one world can cross over into the other. This study explored the conditions in which readers perceive character crossover as being likely to occur. Participants read stories that set up the potential for a character from an embedded world to cross over into the base world. Across four experiments we varied the similarity between the embedded world and the base world and the genre of the story worlds. Participants believed crossover would be more likely (Experiments 1–3), and it was processed more easily (Experiment 4), as measured by reading times, when the base world was fantastic than when it was realistic. The similarity between story worlds mattered when the base world was realistic, with character crossover being more probable and processed more easily when overlap was high. These results have implications for recent research on the barriers between narrative worlds.

ABSTRACTTwo experiments are reported in which people resolve references to sets of entities (e.g., lies) that have previously been introduced either explicitly into a text (“the lies”) or implicitly via a cognate verb (a form of the verb “to lie”). Previous work has show that pronominal references to such entities were judged as relatively unacceptable and required longer judgement times when judgements were positive compared with cases in which the antecedent was explicit. This finding suggests that the inference from the activity of lying to a set of lies is made in the backward direction. New results show a different pattern, with no penalty in either times or acceptability judgements for the implicit case. The results are discussed in terms of hypotheses about reference processing and the notion of the centrality of an antecedent in a scenario.

ABSTRACTAs reading and reading assessment become increasingly implemented on electronic devices, the question arises whether reading on screen is comparable with reading on paper. To examine potential differences, we studied reading processes on different proficiency and complexity levels. Specifically, we used data from the standardization sample of the German reading comprehension test ELFE II (n = 2,807), which assesses reading at word, sentence, and text level with separate speeded subtests. Children from grades 1 to 6 completed either a test version on paper or via computer under time constraints. In general, children in the screen condition worked faster but at the expense of accuracy. This difference was more pronounced for younger children and at the word level. Based on our results, we suggest that remedial education and interventions for younger children using computer-based approaches should likewise foster speed and accuracy in a balanced way.

ABSTRACTAs readers move through a text, they engage in various types of processes that, if all goes well, result in a mental representation that captures their interpretation of the text. With each new text segment the reader engages in passive and, at times, reader-initiated processes. These processes are strongly influenced by the readers’ representation of the preceding text and, in turn, update this very same representation. This updated representation forms the backdrop for the processing of the next text segment, and so on. Thus, passive and reader-initiated processes and the evolving representation engage in a continual, intricate interaction as the reader moves through the text. We provide a framework for conceptualizing the interplay between these three components of comprehension and propose that (1) passive and reader-initiated processes interact during reading; (2) a reader’s standards of coherence moderate what kind and to what extent reader-initiated processes take place; (3) reader-initiated processes lie along a continuum from close-to-the-text, coherence-building processes to far-from-the-text, interpretive processes; and (4) the moment-to-moment processes and the evolving mental representation interact in a reciprocal fashion. We present results from recent experiments on key aspects of the framework, and identify questions the framework raises. We conclude with implications from this conceptualization for theoretical models of reading comprehension.

ABSTRACTIndividuals who read more tend to have stronger verbal skills than those who read less. Interestingly, what you read may make a difference. Past studies have found that reading narrative fiction, but not expository nonfiction, predicts verbal ability. Why this difference exists is not known. Here we investigate one possibility: whether fiction texts contain more of the words typically evaluated by verbal ability measures compared to nonfiction texts. We employed corpus linguistic analyses to compare the frequency with which commonly tested SAT words appeared in both fiction and nonfiction texts, for 3 different corpora. Differences in SAT word frequency between the two genres were found to be negligible across all corpora. As a result, we conclude that there is little evidence that differences in word content between fiction and nonfiction texts can account for their differential relation to verbal ability. Other possible explanations are proposed for future research.

ABSTRACTPeople overhearing referential communication understand more when they listen in on dialogues rather than monologues. Some have proposed this is because entrainment selects better referential expressions. In a corpus analysis, we considered the role of addressees in contributing to entrainment and measured the degree to which particular perspectives were used across different speakers in dialogues and monologues. In a test of overhearer comprehension, we found that although descriptions from dialogues were more easily understood, the frequency by which perspectives were used also influenced comprehension across both dialogues and monologues. We conclude that entrained perspectives are not objectively better and cannot be used as the basis for explaining the benefit of listening to dialogues.