Morton Ann Gernsbacher
Biographic Data
| ID | 80085 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Morton Ann Gernsbacher |
| GIVEN NAMES | Morton Ann |
| FAMILY NAME | Gernsbacher |
| SIGNATURE | GERNSBACHER M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0397-3329 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 88 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The myth that slow test‐takers are worse students: Implications for time‐limited testing
PROBLEM: Time-limited testing, a form of assessment in which participants have a fixed amount of time to complete an exam, remains a global standard across the medical education continuum from admissions through licensure and board certification. A wide-ranging literature, however, documents how speededness, the extent to which a test's time limit alters individual performance, poses a threat to both validity and equity. Specifically, some studen…
Attention and accessibility
Construction–Integration and the Structure Building Framework: Twin siblings born of different parents
Walter Kintsch's Construction–Integration Model furthered our understanding of text comprehension by emphasizing readers' active role in constructing mental representations from textual information and integrating them with existing knowledge. Kintsch's Construction–Integration Model has implications not only for comprehension but also for education. Coincident with Kintsch publishing his model, I published my Structure Building Framework, which …
Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: A false dichotomy
It was recently argued that autism researchers committed to rejecting ableist frameworks in their research may sacrifice "scientifically accurate" conceptualizations of autism. In this perspective piece, we argue that: (a) anti-ableism vs. scientific accuracy is a false dichotomy, (b) there is no ideology-free science that has claim to scientific accuracy, and (c) autism science has a history of false leads in part because of unexamined ableist i…
Autistic People Do Enhance Their Selves
We investigated whether autistic people are less prone to self-enhance (i.e., portray themselves in socially desirable ways). Autistic ( N = 130) and non-autistic ( N = 130) participants first responded to social desirability items using the standard instruction to endorse each item as true or false about themselves. Then, all participants read an explanation of what social desirability items measure before responding again to the social desirabi…
A consensus-based transparency checklist
We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository
Author Correction: A consensus-based transparency checklist
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper
Language and Speech in Autism
Autism is a developmental disability characterized by atypical social interaction, interests or body movements, and communication. Our review examines the empirical status of three communication phenomena believed to be unique to autism: pronoun reversal (using the pronoun you when the pronoun I is intended, and vice versa), echolalia (repeating what someone has said), and a reduced or even reversed production-comprehension lag (a reduction or re…
Internet-Based Communication
Google the question, "How is the Internet changing the way we communicate?," and you will find no shortage of opinions, or fears, about the Internet altering the way we communicate. Although the Internet is not necessarily making communication briefer (neither is the Internet making communication less formal), the Internet is manifesting our preference for writing over speaking. I propose that our preference for communicating through Internet-bas…
Who's Missing the Point? A Commentary on Claims that Autistic Persons Have a Specific Deficit in Figurative Language Comprehension
It's become a caricature of autistic persons that they don't understand figurative language. Despite empirical evidence to the contrary, three of the four contributions to this special issue endorse this stereotype without question. And all four contributions attribute this supposed deficit to even shakier fallacies, such as the controversial claim that autistic people lack empathy or a 'theory of mind.' In this commentary, we begin by reviewing …
The Science of Sex Differences in Science and Mathematics
Amid ongoing public speculation about the reasons for sex differences in careers in science and mathematics, we present a consensus statement that is based on the best available scientific evidence. Sex differences in science and math achievement and ability are smaller for the mid-range of the abilities distribution than they are for those with the highest levels of achievement and ability. Males are more variable on most measures of quantitativ…
Joint Attention and Vocabulary Development: A Critical Look
Joint attention - parents' and children's coordinated attention to each other and to a third object or event - is believed to play a causal and critical role in early word learning. However, joint attention, as conventionally defined and measured, relies only on overt indicators of attention, is studied predominantly in the visual modality, and varies by culture. Moreover, word learning can occur without joint attention in typical development, in…
Handbook of Psycholinguistics
Accessibility in Text and Discourse Processing
Accessibility is one of the most important challenges at the intersection of linguistic and psycholinguistic studies of text and discourse processing. Linguists have shown how linguistic indicators of referential coherence show a systematic pattern: Longer linguistic forms (like full lexical NPs) tend to be used when referents are relatively low accessible, shorter forms (pronouns and zero anaphora) are used when referents are highly accessible. …
Suppression of Story Character Goals During Reading
The objective of this study was to determine how readers process narrative texts when the main character has multiple, and changing, goals. Readers must keep track of such goals to understand the causal relations between text events, an important process for comprehension. The structure building framework theory of reading proposes that readers maintain the most relevant goal in focus using the mechanism of suppression. The results of this study …
Managing Mental Representations During Narrative Comprehension
Three experiments investigated how readers manage their mental representations during narrative comprehension. The first experiment investigated whether readers' access to their mental representations of the main character in a narrative becomes enhanced (producing a "benefit") when the character is rementioned; the first experiment also investigated whether readers' access to the main character in a narrative becomes weakened or interfered with …
The Advantage of First Mention in Korean The Temporal Contributions of Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Factors
Research psychologists' roles in the genetic revolution
Comments on the article by A. F. Patenaude et al (see record 2002-12457-022) that discusses advances in genetics and genetic testing and the role of psychology and psychologists in this field. Goldsmith et al present their thoughts on the role of psychologists in the genetic revolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)
Disordered Discourse in Schizophrenia Described by the Structure Building Framework
This article reviews the phenomena of disordered discourse often manifested in schizophrenia. It argues that the Structure Building Framework, a model of the general cognitive processes and mechanisms underlying discourse, can be used to account for these phenomena. According to the Structure Building Framework, the goal of comprehension is to build coherent mental representations or structures. Building a mental structure involves several compon…
The role of suppression in figurative language comprehension
Two decades of structure building
During the past decade I have been developing a very simple framework for describing the cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in discourse comprehension. I call this framework the Structure Building Framework, and it is based on evidence provided during the first decade of discourse processing research. According to the Structure Building Framework, the goal of comprehension is to build coherent mental representations or structures . Compr…
The proposed role of suppression in simultaneous interpretation
In this paper we suggest that the cognitive mechanism of suppression attenuates interference in many language comprehension phenomena, and is particularly crucial when comprehension must share processing capacity with other cognitive tasks, as is manifestly the case in simultaneous interpreting. During lexical access, the mechanism of suppression attenuates the interference caused by the activation of other lexical information, such as the inappr…
Coherence in Spontaneous Text
Handbook of Psycholinguistics
K. Haberlandt, Methods in Reading Research. F. Ferreira and M. Anes, Why Study Spoken Language? K. Rayner and S.C. Sereno, Eye Movements in Reading Psycholinguistic Studies. M. Kutas and C.K. Van Petten, Psycholinguistics Electrified: Event-Related Brain Potential Investigations. R.E. Remez, A Guide to Research on the Perception of Speech. K.R. Kluender, Speech Perception as a Tractable Problem in Cognitive Science. D.W. Massaro, Psychological As…
Spatial situation models and text comprehension
Three experiments examined how readers inferred spatial information that was relevant to a story character's movements through a previously memorized layout of a fictional building relative to various tasks. This study also examined how inference measures were related to spatial imagery and reading comprehension ability. Replicating the spatial separation effect reported by Morrow, Greenspan, and Bower (1987), probed objects were responded to fas…
Two decades of structure building
During the past decade I have been developing a very simple framework for describing the cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in discourse comprehension. I call this framework the Structure Building Framework, and it is based on evidence provided during the first decade of discourse processing research. According to the Structure Building Framework, the goal of comprehension is to build coherent mental representations or structures . Compr…
The role of suppression in figurative language comprehension
Spatial situation models and text comprehension
Three experiments examined how readers inferred spatial information that was relevant to a story character's movements through a previously memorized layout of a fictional building relative to various tasks. This study also examined how inference measures were related to spatial imagery and reading comprehension ability. Replicating the spatial separation effect reported by Morrow, Greenspan, and Bower (1987), probed objects were responded to fas…
In search of complete comprehension: Getting “minimalists” to work
Three experiments illustrated that readers will not completely comprehend the sentences they read unless sufficiently motivated by situational demands. Complete comprehension of a topic is defined as the ability to accurately redescribe that topic in one’s own words, and it entails three separate yet interdependent processing tasks: (a) activating the information contained in a topic, (b) resolving the topic as a new topic or as an anaphor referr…
Accessibility in Text and Discourse Processing
Accessibility is one of the most important challenges at the intersection of linguistic and psycholinguistic studies of text and discourse processing. Linguists have shown how linguistic indicators of referential coherence show a systematic pattern: Longer linguistic forms (like full lexical NPs) tend to be used when referents are relatively low accessible, shorter forms (pronouns and zero anaphora) are used when referents are highly accessible. …
A consensus-based transparency checklist
We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository
The proposed role of suppression in simultaneous interpretation
In this paper we suggest that the cognitive mechanism of suppression attenuates interference in many language comprehension phenomena, and is particularly crucial when comprehension must share processing capacity with other cognitive tasks, as is manifestly the case in simultaneous interpreting. During lexical access, the mechanism of suppression attenuates the interference caused by the activation of other lexical information, such as the inappr…
Suppression of Story Character Goals During Reading
The objective of this study was to determine how readers process narrative texts when the main character has multiple, and changing, goals. Readers must keep track of such goals to understand the causal relations between text events, an important process for comprehension. The structure building framework theory of reading proposes that readers maintain the most relevant goal in focus using the mechanism of suppression. The results of this study …
Language and Speech in Autism
Autism is a developmental disability characterized by atypical social interaction, interests or body movements, and communication. Our review examines the empirical status of three communication phenomena believed to be unique to autism: pronoun reversal (using the pronoun you when the pronoun I is intended, and vice versa), echolalia (repeating what someone has said), and a reduced or even reversed production-comprehension lag (a reduction or re…
Internet-Based Communication
Google the question, "How is the Internet changing the way we communicate?," and you will find no shortage of opinions, or fears, about the Internet altering the way we communicate. Although the Internet is not necessarily making communication briefer (neither is the Internet making communication less formal), the Internet is manifesting our preference for writing over speaking. I propose that our preference for communicating through Internet-bas…
Joint Attention and Vocabulary Development: A Critical Look
Joint attention - parents' and children's coordinated attention to each other and to a third object or event - is believed to play a causal and critical role in early word learning. However, joint attention, as conventionally defined and measured, relies only on overt indicators of attention, is studied predominantly in the visual modality, and varies by culture. Moreover, word learning can occur without joint attention in typical development, in…
Managing Mental Representations During Narrative Comprehension
Three experiments investigated how readers manage their mental representations during narrative comprehension. The first experiment investigated whether readers' access to their mental representations of the main character in a narrative becomes enhanced (producing a "benefit") when the character is rementioned; the first experiment also investigated whether readers' access to the main character in a narrative becomes weakened or interfered with …
Research psychologists' roles in the genetic revolution
Comments on the article by A. F. Patenaude et al (see record 2002-12457-022) that discusses advances in genetics and genetic testing and the role of psychology and psychologists in this field. Goldsmith et al present their thoughts on the role of psychologists in the genetic revolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)
Construction–Integration and the Structure Building Framework: Twin siblings born of different parents
Walter Kintsch's Construction–Integration Model furthered our understanding of text comprehension by emphasizing readers' active role in constructing mental representations from textual information and integrating them with existing knowledge. Kintsch's Construction–Integration Model has implications not only for comprehension but also for education. Coincident with Kintsch publishing his model, I published my Structure Building Framework, which …
The Advantage of First Mention in Korean The Temporal Contributions of Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Factors
Resolving 20 years of inconsistent interactions between lexical familiarity and orthography, concreteness, and polysemy.
Accessing sentence participants: The advantage of first mention
Mechanisms that improve referential access
Language Comprehension as Structure Building
Investigating differences in general comprehension skill.
Do readers mentally represent characters' emotional states?
Subjects read stories that described concrete actions, such as a main character stealing money from a store where his best friend worked and later learning that his friend had been fired. Following each story, subjects read a target sentence that contained an emotion word that either matched the emotional state implied by the story (e.g. guilt) or mismatched that emotional state. In Experiment 1, target sentences were read more slowly when the mi…
In search of complete comprehension: Getting “minimalists” to work
Three experiments illustrated that readers will not completely comprehend the sentences they read unless sufficiently motivated by situational demands. Complete comprehension of a topic is defined as the ability to accurately redescribe that topic in one’s own words, and it entails three separate yet interdependent processing tasks: (a) activating the information contained in a topic, (b) resolving the topic as a new topic or as an anaphor referr…
Spatial situation models and text comprehension
Three experiments examined how readers inferred spatial information that was relevant to a story character's movements through a previously memorized layout of a fictional building relative to various tasks. This study also examined how inference measures were related to spatial imagery and reading comprehension ability. Replicating the spatial separation effect reported by Morrow, Greenspan, and Bower (1987), probed objects were responded to fas…
Coherence in Spontaneous Text
Handbook of Psycholinguistics
K. Haberlandt, Methods in Reading Research. F. Ferreira and M. Anes, Why Study Spoken Language? K. Rayner and S.C. Sereno, Eye Movements in Reading Psycholinguistic Studies. M. Kutas and C.K. Van Petten, Psycholinguistics Electrified: Event-Related Brain Potential Investigations. R.E. Remez, A Guide to Research on the Perception of Speech. K.R. Kluender, Speech Perception as a Tractable Problem in Cognitive Science. D.W. Massaro, Psychological As…
Two decades of structure building
During the past decade I have been developing a very simple framework for describing the cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in discourse comprehension. I call this framework the Structure Building Framework, and it is based on evidence provided during the first decade of discourse processing research. According to the Structure Building Framework, the goal of comprehension is to build coherent mental representations or structures . Compr…
The proposed role of suppression in simultaneous interpretation
In this paper we suggest that the cognitive mechanism of suppression attenuates interference in many language comprehension phenomena, and is particularly crucial when comprehension must share processing capacity with other cognitive tasks, as is manifestly the case in simultaneous interpreting. During lexical access, the mechanism of suppression attenuates the interference caused by the activation of other lexical information, such as the inappr…
Disordered Discourse in Schizophrenia Described by the Structure Building Framework
This article reviews the phenomena of disordered discourse often manifested in schizophrenia. It argues that the Structure Building Framework, a model of the general cognitive processes and mechanisms underlying discourse, can be used to account for these phenomena. According to the Structure Building Framework, the goal of comprehension is to build coherent mental representations or structures. Building a mental structure involves several compon…
The role of suppression in figurative language comprehension
Research psychologists' roles in the genetic revolution
Comments on the article by A. F. Patenaude et al (see record 2002-12457-022) that discusses advances in genetics and genetic testing and the role of psychology and psychologists in this field. Goldsmith et al present their thoughts on the role of psychologists in the genetic revolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)
Accessibility in Text and Discourse Processing
Accessibility is one of the most important challenges at the intersection of linguistic and psycholinguistic studies of text and discourse processing. Linguists have shown how linguistic indicators of referential coherence show a systematic pattern: Longer linguistic forms (like full lexical NPs) tend to be used when referents are relatively low accessible, shorter forms (pronouns and zero anaphora) are used when referents are highly accessible. …
Suppression of Story Character Goals During Reading
The objective of this study was to determine how readers process narrative texts when the main character has multiple, and changing, goals. Readers must keep track of such goals to understand the causal relations between text events, an important process for comprehension. The structure building framework theory of reading proposes that readers maintain the most relevant goal in focus using the mechanism of suppression. The results of this study …
Managing Mental Representations During Narrative Comprehension
Three experiments investigated how readers manage their mental representations during narrative comprehension. The first experiment investigated whether readers' access to their mental representations of the main character in a narrative becomes enhanced (producing a "benefit") when the character is rementioned; the first experiment also investigated whether readers' access to the main character in a narrative becomes weakened or interfered with …
The Advantage of First Mention in Korean The Temporal Contributions of Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Factors
Handbook of Psycholinguistics
The Science of Sex Differences in Science and Mathematics
Amid ongoing public speculation about the reasons for sex differences in careers in science and mathematics, we present a consensus statement that is based on the best available scientific evidence. Sex differences in science and math achievement and ability are smaller for the mid-range of the abilities distribution than they are for those with the highest levels of achievement and ability. Males are more variable on most measures of quantitativ…
Joint Attention and Vocabulary Development: A Critical Look
Joint attention - parents' and children's coordinated attention to each other and to a third object or event - is believed to play a causal and critical role in early word learning. However, joint attention, as conventionally defined and measured, relies only on overt indicators of attention, is studied predominantly in the visual modality, and varies by culture. Moreover, word learning can occur without joint attention in typical development, in…
Who's Missing the Point? A Commentary on Claims that Autistic Persons Have a Specific Deficit in Figurative Language Comprehension
It's become a caricature of autistic persons that they don't understand figurative language. Despite empirical evidence to the contrary, three of the four contributions to this special issue endorse this stereotype without question. And all four contributions attribute this supposed deficit to even shakier fallacies, such as the controversial claim that autistic people lack empathy or a 'theory of mind.' In this commentary, we begin by reviewing …
Internet-Based Communication
Google the question, "How is the Internet changing the way we communicate?," and you will find no shortage of opinions, or fears, about the Internet altering the way we communicate. Although the Internet is not necessarily making communication briefer (neither is the Internet making communication less formal), the Internet is manifesting our preference for writing over speaking. I propose that our preference for communicating through Internet-bas…
Language and Speech in Autism
Autism is a developmental disability characterized by atypical social interaction, interests or body movements, and communication. Our review examines the empirical status of three communication phenomena believed to be unique to autism: pronoun reversal (using the pronoun you when the pronoun I is intended, and vice versa), echolalia (repeating what someone has said), and a reduced or even reversed production-comprehension lag (a reduction or re…
Psychology (27 works) · Linguistics (21 works) · Computer Science (19 works) · Cognitive psychology (16 works) · Comprehension (11 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (11 works) · Cognition (10 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Natural language processing (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (8 works)