Working memory capacity and the construction of spatial mental models in comprehension and deductive reasoning

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP
K OberauerRobin Hörnig

Abstract

We asked 149 high-school students who were pretested for their working memory capacity (WMC) to read spatial descriptions relating to five objects and to evaluate conclusions asserting an unmentioned relationship between two of the objects. Unambiguous descriptions were compatible with a single spatial arrangement, whereas ambiguous descriptions permitted two arrangements; a subset of the ambiguous descriptions still determined the relation asserted in the conclusion, whereas another subset did not. Two groups of participants received different instructions: The deduction group should accept conclusions only if they followed with logical necessity from the description, whereas the comprehension group should accept a conclusion if it agreed with their representation of the arrangement. Self-paced reading times increased on sentences that introduced an ambiguity, replicating previous findings in deductive reasoning experiments. This effect was also found in the comprehension group, casting doubt on the interpretation that people consider multiple possible arrangements online. Responses to conclusions could be modelled by a multinomial processing model with four parameters: the probability of constructing a correct mental model, t...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 12, 2007·Psychopharmacology·S PompéiaO F A Bueno
Feb 13, 2008·Memory & Cognition·Georg JahnP N Johnson-Laird
Mar 14, 2016·Brain and Cognition·Marco RagniMarkus Knauff
Apr 9, 2015·Frontiers in Psychology·Bruno NicenboimReinhold Kliegl
Jun 27, 2018·Psychonomic Bulletin & Review·Dries TrippasChad Dubé
Mar 6, 2008·Clinical EEG and Neuroscience·Fabiola R Gómez-VelázquezJ L Oropeza de Alba

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