Maintaining global coherence in reading: the role of sentence boundaries

Abstract

In four experiments, we examined the reinstatement of backgrounded information in locally coherent passages, investigating the influence of syntactic boundaries, such as periods, on the time course of this process. In Experiment 1, using a line-by-line reading paradigm, readers were delayed in noticing a contradiction on a target line when the sentence continued onto a posttarget line. Consistent with this, in Experiments 2A and 2B, the results of a recognition probe demonstrated that relevant concepts from long-term memory were not integrated immediately unless the contradiction was followed by a period. Experiment 3 demonstrated that sentence boundaries are sufficient to facilitate the integration of related background information but are not necessary; additional time served the same purpose. Consistent with a memory-based text-processing framework, it appears that the reactivation of related information is initiated automatically but that an integration stage is influenced by such factors as syntactic boundaries.