Events Related To The Central Concept Of Accessibility Effects

Concepts retrieval in text is an important field in concepts research. An important difference in concepts retrieval in text was that the central concepts retrieval was more quickly than peripheral concepts, or reverse. Although the different research drew the different conclusion, they all tried to find the mechanism of information processing in concepts retrieval in text. We argued that the way of measuring the central concepts in texts was the most important factor. So we put forward a new way to measure thecentral concepts------"event-relatedness" , and we designed two series experiments toexplore the access of central concepts measured by it in script-based text and narrative text. In research, the new way of measuring central concepts would contrast with word-frequency relatedness and title-relatedness.The study 1 explored the access of central concept measured by "event-relatedness" in script-based text. This study included six experiments. Experiment la and lb repeated the research of Michelle & O'Brien in 2002, reached a conclusion consistent with it in the condition of Chinese. Experiment lc and 1d discussed the access of central concept measured by event-relatedness; the results showed that the access effect of central concept excelled the peripheral concept significantly. Experiment le and 1f further compared the access effect of central concept between event-relatedness and word frequency-relatedness, the results showed that the access effect of the former excelled the latter significantly. Moreover, the access effect of event-related central concept was not influenced by its frequency.The study 2 explored the access of central concepts by "event-relatedness" in the narrative text. Experiment2a repeated Michelle & O'Brien's study in 2002 in the condition of Chinese, reached a conclusion consistent with it. Experiment 2b discussed the access of central concept measured by event-relatedness, the result showed that with the title-related foils interference, the access effect of central concept measured by event-relatedness significantly excelled peripheral concept. Experiment 2c further compared the access effect of central concept between event-relatedness and word frequency-relatedness, the results showed that the access effect of the former excelled the latter significantly. We reached a conclusion that the measure of centrality by event-relatedness was also suitable in the narrative text.This research concluded that the concepts retrieval in text had two levels: one was word level, another was situation model level. The central concept measured by event-relatedness was the central concept of text indeed, the inconsistent results produced by former research including Michelle & O'Brien in 2002, was because of the inappropriate measure used to determinate central concept in these researches.