Abstract
This study investigates online inferences within script-based texts. The three types of inferences examined relate to causal antecedents (e.g., why did an accident happen?), superordinate goals (e.g., why did he say that?), and subordinate goal-action (e.g., how did she earn so much money?). According to constructionist theory (Graesser, Singer, & Trabasso, 1994), inferences for subordinate goal-actions only occur offline. In this study, participants read script-based texts that are hypothesized to facilitate online inferences due to high levels of contextual constraints. In two conducted experiments, participants read eight stories and undertook a line recognition test. Learning intention was also manipulated (Experiment 2). The results indicate that when a preceding line was deleted, reading times for a target line increased, regardless of inference type or learning intention. Increased latencies for correct rejections and false alarm rates to deleted lines were similarly observed. Inconsistent with constructionist theory, these results suggest that, for script-based texts, inferences for subordinate goal-actions also occur online, just like the other two types of inferences.
