The role of connectives in the comprehension of spontaneous spoken discourse has been investigated by testing the effect of the connective ‘but’ in the realization of causal inferences and the integration of adjacent statements. The role of this connective in the realization of causal inferences has been tested through a judgment task. The role of ‘but’ in the integration of the adjacent statements has been tested through a word monitoring task. The presence of the connective resulted in shorter reaction times for the realization of causal inferences in the judgment task, but it did not result in shorter reaction times for the integration of adjacent statements, as measured by the word monitoring task. These results suggest that listeners are able to make use of connectives to help them create and decide on the existence of causal connections, but not to process and recognize the surface form of the second statement of the pair.

This study investigated the role of working memory capacity on the making of reinstatement and causal elaborative inferences during the reading of natural texts. In order to determine participants' working memory capacity, they were asked to take the reading span task before they took part in the study. Those participants that were identified as high or low working memory capacity readers were asked to perform a lexical decision task in two conditions: pre-inference and inference. In the pre-inference condition, target words representing reinstatement or causal elaborative inferences were presented immediately before the sentences that were predicted to prompt them. In the inference condition, the target words were presented immediately after the sentences that were predicted to prompt the inferences. Results indicated that, for the high working memory capacity readers, lexical decision times were faster at the inference compared to the pre-inference locations for both types of inferences. In the case of low working capacity readers, lexical decision times were faster at the inference compared to the pre-inference locations only for reinstatement inferences. These findings suggest that working memory capacity plays a role in the making of causal inferences during the comprehension of natural texts.

No abstract

No abstract

La comprensión del discurso es central para la participación social y el desempeño en el ámbito educativo. Estudios previos sugieren que la realización de tareas de elaboración la facilitan, dado que promueven que los lectores se involucren con el texto, y lo procesen más profundamente. Entre ellas, las preguntas de elaboración (tales como: ‘Por qué la oración que leíste es cierta?’) tienen un rol destacado. Considerando la importancia de facilitar la comprensión de textos para el ámbito educativo, el objetivo de esta revisión narrativa es presentar estudios que han examinado el rol de estas preguntas en la comprensión del discurso narrativo y expositivo por parte de estudiantes de distintos niveles educativos y con distintas lenguas, con el fin de destacar contribuciones y brechas en la investigación actual, y señalar preguntas pendientes para la realización de futuros estudios. Entre ellas, se destacará que estudios previos no han tendido a examinar el interjuego entre la presentación de preguntas y la modalidad de presentación del material, ni a presentar materiales extensos que involucren discurso espontáneo, o que traten acerca de problemáticas sociales actuales. A su vez, se propondrán aplicaciones al ámbito educativo, las cuales pueden brindar herramientas al docente. Se espera que este trabajo contribuya a destacar la necesidad de plantearse nuevas preguntas de investigación que contribuyan a promover la comprensión del discurso que los estudiantes procesan durante el dictado de clases, durante su participación social en el ámbito cotidiano, y que traten acerca de temas de relevancia social actual.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of filled pauses (uh) on the verification of words and the establishment of causal connections during the comprehension of spoken expository discourse. With this aim, we asked Spanish-speaking students to listen to excerpts of interviews with writers, and to perform a word-verification task and a question-answering task on causal connectivity. There were two versions of the excerpts: filled pause present and filled pause absent. Results indicated that filled pauses increased verification times for words that preceded them, but did not make a difference on response times to questions on causal connectivity. The results suggest that, as signals of delay, filled pauses create a break with surface information, but they do not have the same effect on the establishment of meaningful connections.

Research in text comprehension has provided details as to how text features and cognitive processes interact in order to build comprehension and generate meaning. However, there is no explicit link between the cognitive processes deployed during text comprehension and their place in higher-order cognition, as in problem solving. The purpose of this paper is to propose a cognitive model in which text comprehension is made analogous to a problem solving situation and that relies on current research on well-known cognitive processes such as inference generation, memory, and simulations. The key characteristic of the model is that it explicitly includes the formulation of questions as a component that boosts representational power. Other characteristics of the model are specified and its extensions to basic and applied research in text comprehension and higher-order cognitive processes are outlined.

La memoria comunicativa y los temas de la memoria colectiva de la crisis de 2001 en Argentina, según generaciones, ideología política y afectación 1 Communicative memory and the themes of the collective memory of the 2001 crisis in Argentina, across generations, political ideology and degree of personal damage