Abstract
Understanding requires prior knowledge. Most theories and empirical work on understanding have focused on the use of general prior knowledge. In the experiments presented here, we examined the role of specific prior episodes in understanding. Subjects read ambiguous stories that had some superficial cue to make them think back to an earlier story. Experiment 1 shows that a superficial cue to an earlier story affects how the new story is interpreted. Experiment 2, in which a reading-time measure was used, provides evidence that this effect of the earlier story occurs during the initial understanding of the new story. We discuss the implications of these results for theories of understanding and the use of remindings in analogy.
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This work was supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant 89-0447 to B.R. and by funds from the Institute of Aviation and the Cognitive Science/AI Steering Committee at the University of Illinois to G.B. for a sabbatical leave. Research for this paper was conducted at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
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Ross, B.H., Bradshaw, G.L. Encoding effects of remindings. Memory & Cognition 22, 591–605 (1994). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03198398
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03198398