The comprehension processes and memory structures involved in instrumental inference

Abstract

Instrumental inference was examined in several experiments using priming techniques. One technique allows examination of the relative state of activation of concepts in memory during reading, and a second technique allows the measurement of the relative distance between concepts in the memory representation of a text. The effect of the semantic relatedness between action and instrument on instrumental inference was examined. It was found that only instruments highly related to the action were activated by reading a sentence containing the action and that only instruments highly related to the action were connected to the action in the memory representation of the text.