Competing Activation During Fantasy Text Comprehension. (4th July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Creer, Sarah D.; Cook, Anne E.; O'Brien, Edward J.
• Is Part Of: Scientific studies of reading. Volume 22:Number 4(2018)
• Page Start: 308
• Page End: 320
• Publication Date: 2018-07-04
• Subjects: Reading -- Periodicals; 428.405
• DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2018.1444043
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1088-8438

Abstract

ABSTRACT: During comprehension, readers' general world knowledge and contextual information compete for influence during integration and validation. Fantasy narratives, in which general world knowledge often conflicts with fantastical events, provide a setting to examine this competition. Experiment 1 showed that with sufficient elaboration, contextual information can dominate the integration and validation of fantastical information. In Experiments 2a and 2b, contextual support was diminished and general world knowledge dominated integration and validation and disrupted fantasy comprehension. Experiment 3 demonstrated that skilled readers make better use of contextual elaborations during integration and validation than less skilled readers, leading to different consequences for comprehension.