Effects of Contextual Cues on Inferring and Remembering Meanings of New Words

This study tested four directional hypotheses: Compared with those receiving cue-inadequate sentences, subjects receiving cue-adequate sentences will (1) report greater ease in word inference, and (2) score higher in inferring and remembering the contextual meanings of unfamiliar words. (3) Contextual cues being equally adequate, subjects reading, in contrast to listening to, the sentences will better infer and remember the contextual meanings of unfamiliar words. (4) The higher the scores of word inference, the better the retention of the contextual meanings of the target words. With statistical significance, all these hypotheses were confirmed. An approach combining schema theory and the generative model of comprehension was used for the rationale of this study and the discussion of its findings.