Hemispheric processing of predictive inferences: the influence of reading goals and textual constraint

Recent findings suggest that textual constraint and reading goals influence inference generation. However, it is unclear how constraint and reading goals interact during predictive inference generation in the hemispheres. In the current divided visual field study, participants were given a study goal or not given a reading goal prior to reading text that was either strongly or weakly constrained toward a predictive inference. Participants then made lexical decisions to inference-related target words presented to either the left visual field-right hemisphere (LVF-RH) or the right visual field-left hemisphere (RVF-LH). When readers did not have a goal, strongly constrained inferences were processed similarly in the hemispheres, while a right hemisphere advantage was evident for weakly constrained inferences. However, when readers did have a goal, strongly and weakly constrained inferences were processed similarly in both hemispheres. Thus, goals of a reader seem to influence predictive inference generation in the hemispheres, particularly for weakly constrained text.