@article{ref1,
title="Causality and the allocation of attention during comprehension",
journal="Journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition",
year="1990",
author="Fletcher, C. R. and Hummel, J. E. and Marsolek, C. J.",
volume="16",
number="2",
pages="233-240",
abstract="Recent research has suggested that each statement in a narrative text is understood by relating it to its causal antecedents and consequences and that the text as a whole is understood by finding a causal path linking its opening to its final outcome. Fletcher and Bloom (1988) have proposed that in order to accomplish this goal, while minimizing the number of times long-term memory has to be searched, readers focus their attention on the last clause of a narrative that has causal antecedents but no consequences in the preceding text. As a result, a statement that is followed by a causal antecedent should remain the focus of attention, while the same statement followed by a consequence should not. This prediction was tested and confirmed in three experiments which show that when a target statement is followed by a sentence that includes only causal antecedents, (a) continuation sentences related to it are read more quickly, (b) target words drawn from it are easier to recognize, and (c) subject-generated continuations are more likely to be causally related to it.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0278-7393",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}