Previous researchers have argued that objects associated with a protagonist may be foregrounded, or held active, in memory. This study expanded on previous work by using an inconsistency paradigm to investigate the effects of protagonist association on object accessibility. Readers experienced more processing difficulty when a target sentence contradicted previously presented information about protagonist-associated objects than when the contradiction pertained to protagonist-dissociated objects. However, the results of a naming time study demonstrated that this effect was due to increases in accessibility of protagonist-associated objects, not continued increases in availability. A final experiment demonstrated that degree of association between the object and the protagonist does not influence object accessibility. The results provide additional evidence for, and a more refined explanation of, foregrounding effects during reading. (Contains 1 footnote and 3 tables. Sample Passage for Experiments 1 through 2b is appended.)