MINIMAL OR GLOBAL INFERENCE DURING READING

The minimalist hypothesis of restricted inference processing (McKoon & Ratcliff, 1992) states that the only automatic inferences to accompan y comprehension are those that either are based on quickly available i nformation or contribute to local text coherence. The present paper id entifies serious shortcomings of the minimalist hypothesis. First, the definition of minimalism is flawed with reference to the concepts of automaticity and the two minimalist criteria. Second, minimalism is di fficult to falsify. Third, the minimalist prediction that readers will not inferentially link distant text ideas under local coherence is co ntradicted by existing evidence. Fourth, the minimalist denial that re aders routinely derive situation models from text is not a necessary i mplication of the minimalist hypothesis. An alternate, global, analysi s is that readers maintain coherence at multiple levels of test repres entation, including the situational level; and that inference processe s are guided by the collaboration of availability, convergence of acti vation, and the search for explanations for text outcomes. (C) 1994 Ac ademic Press, Inc.