Context-constraint effects on inferences for subordinate goal-action, superordinate goal, and causal antecedents during text comprehension

Constructing inferences during narrative text comprehension.

The authors describe a constructionist theory that accounts for the knowledge-based inferences that are constructed when readers comprehend narrative text. Readers potentially generate a rich variety of inferences when they construct a referential situation model of what the text is about. The proposed constructionist theory specifies that some, but not all, of this information is constructed u...

Automatic goal inferences

The social psychological literature on automatic social inferences has focused on one construct that helps explaining human behavior—traits (e.g., Gilbert, Pelham, & Krull, 1988; Trope, 1986; Winter & Uleman, 1984). The dispositional roots of behavior, however, go beyond relatively stable constructs such as traits to include more transient causes such as one s intentions and goals. Evidence fro...

Constructing Inferences and Relations during Text Comprehension Arthur

Dissociable Effects of Salience on Attention and Goal-Directed Action

Everyday behavior frequently involves encounters with multiple objects that compete for selection. For example, driving a car requires constant shifts of attention between oncoming traffic, rearview mirrors, and traffic signs and signals, among other objects. Behavioral goals often drive this selection process [1, 2]; however, they are not the sole determinant of selection. Physically salient o...

Context-Dependent Effects of Goal Primes

We provide evidence that goal priming effects are context dependent. We show that goal primes encourage prime-consistent behavior when the behavioral context is common and prime-inconsistent behavior when the behavioral context is uncommon. While the prime-consistent behavior is compatible with existing theory, the prime-inconsistent behavior poses a theoretical challenge. We argue that uncommo...