VALIDATION OF CAUSAL BRIDGING INFERENCES IN DISCOURSE UNDERSTANDING

We proposed that the causal bridging inference that links the sentences of Mary poured the water on the bonfire. The fire went out, must be validated against general knowledge. The two sentences were hypothesized to respectively serve as the minor premise and conclusion in a mental structure analogous to a syllogism. We posited that the missing premise, "Water extinguishes fire," is computed, and validated against world knowledge. Subjects answered questions such as Does water extinguish fire? after reading either causal sequences; or control temporal sequences, such as Mary placed the water by the bonfire. The fire went out. Answer time was faster in the causal than the temporal condition for sentence pairs and for brief passages; and when causal analysis was complicated by greater inferential distance, and by the surface reversal of cause and effect. These findings clarify bridging inference processes, and provide an instance of readers' comprehension monitoring. © 1992.