The Inference Revision Mechanism Of Chinese Discourse In Auditory And Visual Modalities

Language comprehension is a complex cognitive process involving the recognition,processing,and integration of information from different modalities.Unlike word comprehension,discourse comprehension is a continuously updating process of integration,involving inference and revision.Most previous studies have adopted English as the experimental material to elucidate the inference revision mechanism from the auditory and visual modalities,and the influence of cognitive factors such as working memory and inhibitory control on this mechanism was also investigated.However,few studies have examined this mechanism and its influencing factors on Chinese.Accordingly,this thesis focuses on the inference revision mechanism of Chinese processing to provide more evidence for related research.To investigate the Chinses inference revision mechanism in the auditory and visual modalities,the following questions are raised to be addressed in the present study:(1)What is the inference revision mechanism of Chinese language processing?(2)What are the similarities and differences between the Chinese inference revision processing in the auditory and visual modalities?(3)What are the effects of cognitive factors,namely working memory capacity and inhibitory control ability,on the Chinese inference revision processing?To answer the three research questions,this thesis employed behavioral experiments to explore the mechanism of the Chinese inference revision in the auditory and visual modalities.The experiment involved 30 students as subjects and adopted a Cognitive Resources test,and an Inference Revision test,which measured working memory,inhibitory control,and inference revision respectively.Behavioral data were analyzed with SPSS and findings are presented as follows.Firstly,the processing mechanism of Chinese inference revision can be summarized as follows:the subject first process the input information to generate initial inferences and construct an initial situation model;as comprehension proceeds,the current situation model continuously evaluates and detects the newly encoded information;when inconsistencies are detected,the subject simultaneously revises the previous inference,integrates the new information,and finally constructs a new contextually relevant situation model.Secondly,no significant difference was found in the inference revision mechanism between the auditory and visual modalities in Chinese,but the auditory modality could improve the efficiency of integration.Thirdly,inference revision processing in Chinese was not significantly associated with working memory but was positively associated with inhibitory control ability.Based on the research findings,this study further refines the study of the inference revision mechanism,constructs a model for Chinese inference revision,and confirms the positive effect of inhibitory control ability on inference revision.In conclusion,this study investigates the Chinese inference revision mechanism under visual and auditory modalities,which enriches the research on inference revision and provides empirical support for the relevant theoretical models of this mechanism.This study will shed some light on future studies about the mechanisms of Chinese inference revision.In addition,for Chinese language teachers and learners,an in-depth understanding of the inference revision mechanism in language processing also contributes to achieving higher levels of teaching and learning.