Minimal or Global Inference during Reading

The minimalist hypothesis of restricted inference processing (McKoon & Ratcliff, 1992) states that the only automatic inferences to accompany comprehension are those that either are based on quickly available information or contribute to local text coherence. The present paper identifies serious shortcomings of the minimalist hypothesis. First, the definition of minimalism is flawed with reference to the concepts of automaticity and the two minimalist criteria. Second, minimalism is difficult to falsify. Third, the minimalist prediction that readers will not inferentially link distant text ideas under local coherence is contradicted by existing evidence. Fourth, the minimalist denial that readers routinely derive situation models from text is not a necessary implication of the minimalist hypothesis. An alternate, global, analysis is that readers maintain coherence at multiple levels of test representation, including the situational level; and that inference processes are guided by the collaboration of availability, convergence of activation, and the search for explanations for text outcomes.