TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1990//
TI  - Causality and the allocation of attention during comprehension
JO  - Journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition
A1  - Fletcher, C. R.
A1  - Hummel, J. E.
A1  - Marsolek, C. J.
SP  - 233
EP  - 240
VL  - 16
IS  - 2
N2  - 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>
LA  - en
SN  - 0278-7393
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -