Triggering a Schema: The Role of Italics and Intonation in the Interpretation of Ambiguous Discourse

Anderson and associates have demonstrated that the interpretation of ambiguous discourse is strongly influenced by general schemata determined by a reader's background and previous experience. In two experiments, we show that variations in paralinguistic stress cues, based upon Chafe's given-new and contrastiveness notions, can also influence which frameworks subjects use in comprehending Anderson's two ambiguous passages. This schematic triggering was demonstrated consistently when tests were presented visually with focal stress indicated by italics, and less consistently when the passages were presented aurally with increased intensity and pitch conveying stress. Differential stress patterns appear to evoke a particular message interpretation by influencing the accessibility of the available interpretive schemata. Educational implications of such schematic-triggering phenomena are discussed.