Toward A Contextualist View of Elaborative Inferences

Publisher Summary The study of elaborative inferences, those that link text-based information with related information from memory, has become an important topic among researchers who view comprehension as a constructive process. In particular, the studies of elaborative inferences have been used to support and extend schema theory, which in turn has influenced both research and teaching in the area of reading. The traditional way for schema theory to account for elaborative inferences is that such inferences are the default values of the active schema. This chapter provides an overview of the methods—off-line memory paradigms and on-line memory paradigms—that have been used to detect subjects' use of elaborative inferences. Several recent studies have used priming of word stems or word fragments to test hypotheses about memory in amnesiacs and about memory processes in general. The word-stem completion task is very compatible with normal reading styles, and it is adaptable to a wide range of stimulus materials..