THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFERENTIAL PROCESSING AND TEXT PROCESSING: A DEVELOPMENTAL STUDY
Journal Title: Problems of Psychology in the 21st Century - Year 2012, Vol 2, Issue 4
Abstract
The research reported here was designed to investigate the critical role played by certain factors implicated in the mental representation of text, and to establish whether their role varies signifcantly as a function of developmental age. Specifcally, it was decided to analyse, in a sample of 180 subjects was selected from three different age groups (7, 10 and 18 years of age respectively), the role of such factors in mediating and influencing the generation of the inferences needed to understand a piece of text characterised by a sequence of information which flows in a logical order, but leads to a conclusion which is contrary to the expectations evoked by the text. In line with this objective, it was decided to take into account factors related to encoding (added information about the key object – a title), those involved in recall (inferential tests regarding the object and action of change), as well as purely metacognitive factors, such as evaluation of one’s own comprehension and awareness of textual incongruence, whose presence, according to our assumptions, should facilitate the formulation of inferential hypotheses. It would thus seem that inferential processing is powerfully influenced both by cognitive and structural factors, factors which can play a role during both encoding and recall. The results reported here tend to confrm the hypothesis that there is indeed a signifcant developmental trend in the role played by those factors involved in the coherent representation of text and in the formulation of inferences. The data suggest that children in the youngest age group obtain the greatest advantage from clues in reaching a more correct representation of the text concerned. It is concluded that inferential processes do not serve only to make connections between propositions, but to construct a coherent mental representation of text (Kintsh, 1994; Zwaan, 1994, 1996).
Authors and Affiliations
agata maltese, annamaria pepi, lidia scifo
ADOLESCENTS COMMUNICATION, CONFLICT STYLES AND CONFLICT RESOLUTIONS WITH PARENTS, PEERS AND ROMANTIC PARTNERS: SIMILARITY, DIFFERENCES AND RELATIONS WITH SATISFACTION
Communication and conflict styles and resolutions are key issues for understanding the dynamics underlying every social relationships. However they are usually investigated separately in different social contexts. In t...
THE JUDGMENTS CONTENT ABOUT THE OTHERS IS CONDITIONED BY THE SELF-STRUCTURE OF THE PERSON
The article presents a conceptual model explaining the genesis of person judgments about the others as mediated by motivation regulation. The model is drawn from knowledge theory which has been designed by Losskiy and Fr...
tHe iNNoVatiVe PsyCHologiCal CliMate: its sCoPe, struCture aND ParaMeters
The research reported here was designed to investigate the notion of psychological climate. The study presents the types of climate in organizations, namely, psychological, socio-psychological, organizational, innovati...
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS CAUSING TENDENCY TO XENOPHOBIA AT STUDENTS OF HUMANITARIAN COLLEGES
Research analysis features of the educational environment of higher education institution and personal characteristics of students depending on the tendency to xenophobia. 50 students of humanitarian higher school settl...
BULGARIAN TEACHERS’ CAREER MOTIVATORS
A review of several studies of teachers’ career motivation since Bulgarian Renaissance till nowadays is presented in this paper. 203 Bulgarian teachers in public schools were studied by means of a questionnaire created...