Numbers and prior knowledge in sentence comprehension.

Authors

  • Pedro Macizo Pedro Macizo Dpt. Psicología Experimental y Fisiología del Comportamiento Facultad de Psicología Universidad de Granada Campus de Cartuja s/n 18071 Granada Spain
  • Amparo Herrera Amparo Herrera Departamento de Psicología Básica y Metodología Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Murcia Campus de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, SPAIN E-mail: aherrera@um.es Phone: +34 868 88 84 80 Fax: +34 868 88 81 61
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.29.1.135851
Keywords: Prior knowledge, sentence comprehension, number processing.

Supporting Agencies

  • Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (research project PSI2009-11094) and by Fundación Séneca (Región de Murcia
  • Spain)(research project 08741/PHCS/08).

Abstract

We evaluated whether the comprehension of sentences that contained numerical information could benefit from presenting numbers in Arabic format and from using prior knowledge. Participants read sentences including numbers (Arabic digits or number words) while the comprehension accuracy was evaluated. In addition, the sentences were biased or unbiased by people’s prior knowledge about quantities. The results showed better comprehension for sentences that contained Arabic digits as compared to number words. Moreover, biased sentences were understood more accurately than unbiased sentences. These results indicate that information about magnitude in sentence context is comprehended better when quantities are presented in Arabic format and when they are associated with participants’ world knowledge.

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Author Biography

Pedro Macizo, Pedro Macizo Dpt. Psicología Experimental y Fisiología del Comportamiento Facultad de Psicología Universidad de Granada Campus de Cartuja s/n 18071 Granada Spain

Profesor Titular. Dpto. Psicología Experimental.
How to Cite
Macizo, P., & Herrera, A. (2013). Numbers and prior knowledge in sentence comprehension. Anales de Psicología / Annals of Psychology, 29(1), 280–284. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.29.1.135851
Issue
Vol. 29 No. 1 (2013)
Section
Cognitive Psychology

 

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