Inferencias causales y comprensiónlas inferencias-puente pueden no formarse en la fase de codificación

Resumo

In this paper we studied when backward inferences are drawn, namely, when backward inferences necessary for connnecting a subordinate causal clause to the main clause are made. Two types of instructions (Comprehension and Recall) and texts (known and unknown) were used, and their effects on the inference making process analysed. We recorded the reading times of the target sentence (causal sentence) either in an explicit or implicit information text. After each text, subjects had to verify a statement about the explicit information and their verification times were recorded. 64 subjects participated in the experiment. The analysis of results showed that comprehension group subjects draw the inference during reading-reading times of the explicit condition sentences were significantly shorter than those of the implicit condition. Recall group subjects, on the contrary, made the inference during the verification stage-shorter verification times in the explicit than in the implicit condition. Contrary to expectations, no differences were found between known and unknown texts, except for a highly significant decrease in reading and verification times of known texts compared to unknown ones.