Automatic satire detection is a subtle text classification task, for machines and at times, even for humans. In this paper we argue that satire detection should be approached using common-sense inferences, rather than traditional text classification methods. We present a highly structured latent variable model capturing the required inferences. The model abstracts over the specific entities app...

According to current psychological models of deduction, people can draw inferences on the basis of information that they receive from different sources at different times. In 3 reading-comprehension experiments, the authors demonstrated that premises that appear far apart in a text (distant) are not accessed and are therefore not used as a basis for logical inferences (Experiment 1), unless the...

Most current theories of text processing assume a constructionist view of inference processing. In this article, an alternative view is proposed, labeled the minimalist hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, the only inferences that are encoded automatically during reading are those that are based on easily available information, either from explicit statements in the text or from general kn...

Students studied materials about the human heart and circulatory system using either (a) text only, (b) text with simple diagrams, or (c) text with detailed diagrams. During learning, students self-explained [1] the materials. Explanations were transcribed, separated into propositions, and analyzed according to the type of learning process they represented. Results demonstrated that diagrams pr...

THESIS: Genre Effects on the Generalization Inference STUDENT: Wesley A. Stoller DEGREE: Master of Cognitive and Social Processes COLLEGE: Science and Humanities DATE: July, 2010 PAGES: 50 The constructionist theory has emerged as a leading perspective in the field of reading inferences and makes the assumption that readers cannot generate inferences when text is inconsiderate or lacking cohere...

Understanding a text requires two basic tasks: making inferences at several levels of knowledge and composing a global interpretation of the given text from those various types of inferences. Since making inferences at each level demands an extensive computations, there have been several attempts to use parallel inference mechanisms such as parallel marker passing (PMP) to increase the producti...

Two experiments are presented in which a novel knowledge base was acquired by 6- to 15-year-old children prior to hearing a multiepisode story, and where inferences from the story drew only on that knowledge base. Making knowledge equally available to all children did not attenuate age-related differences in either coherence or elaborative inferencing. Easily accessible knowledge was generally ...

In this article, a theoretical framework is proposed for the inference processes that occur during reading. According to the framework, inferences can vary in the degree to which they are encoded. This notion is supported by three experiments in this article that show that degree of encoding can depend on the amount of semantic-associative information available to support the inference processe...

There are variations in the extent to which particular types of inferences or activations are made during reading (G. McKoon & R. Ratcliff, 1992; M. Singer, 1994). In this study, the authors investigated the influence of reading purpose (for entertainment or study) on inference generation. Participants read 2 texts aloud and 2 texts for comprehension measures. Reading purpose did not influence ...