JOURNAL OF MEMORY AND LANGUAGE 32, 279-300 (1993) Inferences during Reading: Converging Evidence from Discourse Analysis, Talk-Aloud Protocols, and Recognition Pri Sovounc SUH AND ToM TRABASSO The University of Chicago ‘The conditions under which inferences tht connect goals to other goals and actions in narrative texts were investigated following athree-pronged approach. (1) Contrasting texts that allowed or prevented inferences were constructed according 1 the expectations of « causal network, discourse model. Inferences depended upon whether a subgoal or action dliretly ft the plan of a superordnate goal, and upon which goal was the most recent, ‘unsatisfied goal in a hierarchic! plan. @2) The making of predicted goal inferences was ‘evaluated and supported by subjects taking cloud as they read each sentence. (2) Conver- gent evidence for goa inferences during on-line processing was found by recognition prin- ing of goal statement information at those locations predicted as likely by the discourse analysis and tlk-aloud data. The convergent methods and data are discussed with respect 10 theoretical positions and problems in revealing inferences in ocline processing. Adem Ps, In most accounts of what a reader does uring the reading and comprehending of a discourse, a representation of the text is made that requires the integration of infor mation across sentences. This integration achieved primarily by the reader's linking of clauses or propositions through active tion of relevant knowledge and inferences. The inferences may be anaphoric, lexical, logical, spatiotemporal, causal, or thematic (Bransford, Barclay, & Franks, 1972; Clark, 1977; Graesser, 1981; Graesser & Clark, 1985; Kintsch & van Dijk, 1978; ‘This research was supported by Grant HD 17431 t0 'T. Trabasso and Grant HD 25742 to T. Trabasco and IN, L. Stein from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and by a grant from the Benton Center. We are particularly indebted to Nancy ‘Stein for urging us to explore talk-aloud procedures in this research. We also like to thank Mark Lepper and Gordon Bower of the Department of Psychology, ‘Stanford University, and Shirley Feldman of the Fam- ily Swaies ‘Stanford University, who gen ‘ously lent their facilites to the senior author during the ‘writing of this paper on a sabtatical leave from University of Chicago. We also wish to thank Mike Rinck for comments on an earlier draft of this paper ‘and for helpful reviews from three anonymeus review- crs. Please send reprint requests to Dr. Tom Trabasso, Department of Psychology, 5845 S. University Ave- ‘nue, Chicago, IL 60637. ons Kintsch, 1988; Mandler & Johnson, 1977; Nichols & Trabasso, 1980; Rieger, 1975; Rumelhart, 1975, 1977; Seifert, 1990; Sei- fert, Robertson & Black, 198: jeifert, McKoon, Abelson, & Ratcliff, 1986; Schank, 1975; Stein & Glenn, 1979; Tra- basso, Secco, & van den Brock, 1984). In certain kinds of discourse, an impor- tant means of integration is achieved by making causal inferences that relate two or more clauses through the use of knowledge of goal plans. Goals are a major source of global coherence since they organize se- quences of states and actions over large surface distances in the text (Long & Gol- ding. in press: Long. Golding, Graesser. & Clark, 1990; Long, Golding, & Graesser, 1992; Schank, 1986; Schank & Abelson, 1977; Seifert, 1990; Trabasso, van den Brock, & Suh, 1989; Trabasso & Nickels, 1992; Trabasso, Stein, Rodkin, Munger, & Baugha, 1992; Trabasso & Suh, in press). Evidence that causal inferences are made during reading comes from two main kinds of studies: recall after reading and on-line processing during reading. Texts and events that analytically allow more causal inferences are more memorable (Keenan, Baillet, & Brown, 1984; Myers, Shinjo, & 9 (0749.596X/93 $5.00 ‘Coptight © 1993 Acwtenic Hess, be ‘Arts of reproaction in any erm eaerved. Copyright (c) 2004 ProQuest Information and Learsing Company Copyright (c) Academic Press, Ine.