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The Role of Connectives in the Comprehension of Spontaneous Spoken Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Jazmín Cevasco
Jazmín Cevasco*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jazmín Cevasco. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Clay 2818, 7'D'. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Phone: (011-5411)4774-1566. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The role of connectives in the comprehension of spontaneous spoken discourse has been investigated by testing the effect of the connective ‘but’ in the realization of causal inferences and the integration of adjacent statements. The role of this connective in the realization of causal inferences has been tested through a judgment task. The role of ‘but’ in the integration of the adjacent statements has been tested through a word monitoring task. The presence of the connective resulted in shorter reaction times for the realization of causal inferences in the judgment task, but it did not result in shorter reaction times for the integration of adjacent statements, as measured by the word monitoring task. These results suggest that listeners are able to make use of connectives to help them create and decide on the existence of causal connections, but not to process and recognize the surface form of the second statement of the pair.

El rol de los conectores en la comprensión de discurso oral espontáneo ha sido estudiado examinando el efecto del conector ‘pero’ en la realización de inferencias causales y en la integración de enunciados adyacentes. El rol de este conector en la realización de inferencias causales ha sido investigado a través de una tarea de elaboración. El rol de ‘pero’ en la integración de enunciados adyacentes ha sido investigado a través de una tarea de monitoreo de palabras. La presencia del conector resultó en menores tiempos de reacción para la realización de inferencias causales en la tarea de elaboración, pero no resultó en tiempos menores de reacción para la integración de enunciados adyacentes en la tarea de monitoreo de palabras. Estos resultados sugieren que los oyentes son capaces de utilizar la presencia de un conector para crear y decidir acerca de la existencia de conexiones causales entre los enunciados, pero no para procesar y reconocer la forma superficial del segundo enunciado del par conectado.

Keywords

connectivesspoken discoursecausal inferencescomprehensionconectoresdiscurso oralinferencias causalescomprensión
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , May 2009 , pp. 56 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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