Mapping the Knowledge Domain of Text Inferencing

Text inferencing is a critical factor that would affect discourse comprehension. Growing attention has been paid to the research on inferential processing during text reading, with numerous papers on this topic published in recent decades. To gain a bibliographic landscape of inferential processing during discourse reading, co-citation analysis, cluster interpretations, and citation bursts analysis were conducted via CiteSpace based on the data from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection of Thomson Reuters from 2001 to 2021. The results reveal that (1) reading comprehension and working memory are fairly popular topics in recent decades; (2) research exploring predictive inferences, bridging inferences, and causal inferences have been paid much attention; and (3) predictive inference, eye movement, and listening comprehension may be attractive in future studies.