Showing papers by "Gail McKoon published in 2010"
TL;DR: The effects of aging and IQ on performance were examined in three two-choice tasks: numerosity discrimination, recognition memory, and lexical decision, finding that age and IQ have larger effects on slower responses than faster responses.
223 citations
TL;DR: Sequential sampling models provide an alternative to traditional analyses of reaction times and accuracy in two-choice tasks and are reviewed with particular focus on the diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978) and how its application can aide research on clinical disorders.
182 citations
TL;DR: The diffusion model analysis showed a consistent processing advantage for threatening words in high-anxious individuals, whereas traditional comparisons showed no significant differences, challenging the view that input competition is necessary for enhanced threat processing.
Abstract: Enhanced processing of threatening information is a well established phenomenon among high-anxious individuals. This effect is most reliably shown in situations where 2 or more items compete for processing resources, suggesting that input competition is a critical component of the effect. However, it could be that there are small effects in situations without input competition, but the dependent measures typically used are not sensitive enough to detect them. The present study analyzed data from a noncompetition task, single-string lexical decision, with the diffusion model, a decision process model that provides a more direct measure of performance differences than either response times or accuracy alone. The diffusion model analysis showed a consistent processing advantage for threatening words in high-anxious individuals, whereas traditional comparisons showed no significant differences. These results challenge the view that input competition is necessary for enhanced threat processing. Implications for theories of anxiety are discussed.
102 citations
TL;DR: Evidence that trait information is not sufficient to connect a character to a text is found and evidence that the moment-by-moment processing effects of such small mysteries also affect readers' memory for the stories is found.
Abstract: Current theories of text processing say little about how author’s narrative choices, including the introduction of small mysteries, can affect readers’ narrative experiences Gerrig, Love, and McKoon (2009) provided evidence that one type of small mystery—a character introduced without information linking him or her to the story—affects readers’ moment-by-moment processing For that project, participants read stories that introduced characters by proper name alone (eg, Judy) or with information connecting the character to the rest of the story (eg, our principal Judy) In an on-line recognition probe task, responses to the character’s name three lines after his or her introduction were faster when the character had not been introduced with connecting information, suggesting that the character remained accessible awaiting resolution In the four experiments in this paper, we extended our theoretical analysis of small mysteries In Experiments 1 and 2, we found evidence that trait information (eg, daredevil Judy) is not sufficient to connect a character to a text In Experiments 3 and 4, we provide evidence that the moment-by-moment processing effects of such small mysteries also affect readers’ memory for the stories We interpret the results in terms of Kintsch’s Construction-Integration model (1988) of discourse processing
10 citations