The effects of levels of sentential context on scope of reference for contextually defined categories

Three experiments investigated whether graded contextual constraints produce graded on-line representations for contextually-defined categories. In Experiment 1, people read pairs of sentences. In each pair, the first sentence included a category term whose interpretation was constrained by contextual information to either a low, moderate, or high degree. The second, target sentence contained a category exemplar that matched the category better with each increase in constraint. The results showed that target sentence reading times were facilitated by high constraints only. In Experiment 2, when exemplars were presented as targets in a lexical decision task, facilitation increased with each increase in constraint. In Experiment 3, high constraints facilitated decision times of more appropriate exemplars, but inhibited decision times for less appropriate exemplars. Moderate constraints, weaker than those of Experiment 2, affected neither exemplar. Collectively, the results suggest the following about inferences for contextually-defined categories: (a) context must be fairly constraining for an inference to occur, (b) inferences contain information about a specific exemplar, not about a revised general category definition or a reduced scope of reference, (c) once instantiation by an exemplar occurs, its strength varies with the amount of contextual constraint.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Sadler, Daniel David

Contributors dc:contributor

• Shoben, Edward J.

• Psychology, Experimental

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1994 Sadler, Daniel David

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9503306
(UMI)AAI9503306

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23414