IN SEARCH OF COMPLETE COMPREHENSION - GETTING MINIMALISTS TO WORK

Three experiments illustrated that readers will not completely compreh end the sentences they read unless sufficiently motivated by situation al demands. Complete comprehension of a topic is defined as the abilit y to accurately redescribe that topic in one's own words, and it entai ls three separate yet interdependent processing tasks: (a) activating the information contained in a topic, (b) resolving the topic as a new topic or as an anaphor referring to an old topic, and (c) modifying o ne's mental structures to organize the additional information that is received. Each process hinges on the outcome of those that preceded it , and comprehenders are not expected to initiate the next process in t he sequence unless it is required or motivated by task demands. To tes t these predictions, three experiments were conducted in which partici pants were prompted to engage in one, two, or all three comprehension processes after reading two-clause conjunctive sentences. The results suggested that experimental participants had a strategy of minimal tas k satisfaction: They did not resolve anaphors, build structures, or dr aw inferences unless it was necessary for completion of the experiment .