Acta Psychologica Sinica

Abstract

Using on-line window display technique, the present study investigated the process of accessing background information in discourse comprehension. In 3 experiments, participants read passages in each of three elaboration conditions: consistent elaboration, inconsistent elaboration, and qualified elaboration. The consistent version elaborated on a characteristic of the protagonist that was consistent with a subsequent target action carried out by the protagonist. In the inconsistent version, the target action was inconsistent with the elaborated characteristic. The qualification condition was created by modifying the inconsistent version in order to restrict the conditions under which the characteristic was operative. Besides that, the qualification version also presented some characteristics of the protagonist that would support execution of the actions described in the target sentences. The data demonstrated that subjects experienced comprehension difficulty whether the conflicting information was restricted to the past or was informed as untrue. These results support the memory-based text processing view, indicating that both past information or misinformation could be accessed and influence the current information processing in discourse comprehension.

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