Concludes that, whereas inference processing may be impeded by the relative lack of familiarity of the content of expository text, it is not strictly precluded. Indicates rather that inference processing in the comprehension of expository text is regulated by the information-processing constraints of the reading task and by the discourse and…

Demonstrates that reactivation of unsatisfied goal information depended on the type of original goal context and whether it was fully reinstated and that reinstatement of goal information from the distant target episode was successful only when the context was fully reinstated. Supports models of comprehension that assume reactivation of relevant…

Tests two views of how relevant global information becomes readily available to readers. Demonstrates that backgrounded information became readily available if it shared features in common with the current contents of working memory. Shows that this occurred independently of whether the information was relevant or thematically related;…

Presents results of a study indicating that, over many propositions appearing in passages that vary widely in content and vocabulary difficulty, early and later propositions are better recalled, and that the rated importance of a proposition predicts probability of recall independent of serial position. (HTH)

Tests how well two models of text comprehension (one referential and one causal) predicted the importance ratings and the recall of procedural texts. Finds better predictive power of the causal model for importance ratings; neither model performed well with recall; and neither model was as predictive of procedural text as they were in previous…

Hypothesizes a resonance process in which concepts and propositions in the discourse resonate in response to related elements in the current sentence, initiating a process that makes available a subset of the information in the representation. Reviews research; presents explicit assumptions about the discourse representation; and describes results…

Reports findings of three experiments indicating that story plot unit structure is a good predictor of subjects' thematic judgments about the story, and that subjects are sensitive to a more abstract level of conceptualization than the thematic patterns tested, based on evaluations of the protagonist's plans in the story. (HTH)

Investigates and demonstrates the strong effects of the role of global discourse organization on the comprehension of temporal order in narrative texts. Proposes three principles of discourse organization. Tests the comprehension of underlying event order of five passages by subjects. (HB)

Uses W. Kintsch's Construction Integration model as a framework to explore the effects of preexisting attitudes on memory for texts. Shows that preexisting attitudes interacted with attitude texts over delay although not in a direct or expected fashion. Emphasizes the need to manipulate representational levels of attitude texts and to consider…

Examines how type of referent (name versus pronoun) influences comprehension of short passages. Provides strong support for central predictions of centering theory: (1) using a repeated name to refer to the central entity of a discourse disrupts comprehension; and (2) this disruption interacts with whether there is a continuing or shifting…

Demonstrates that (1) in a theory of comprehension, global coherence must refer not just to the availability of a macrostructure, but also to its ease of construction; and (2) the topic-comment assignment at the sentence level can be an important influence on the reader's perception of the passage topic. (FL)

Introduces a multistate probabilistic causal chain notation for describing the knowledge structures implicitly represented by the subjective conditional probability distribution. Proposes a psychological process model of how story comprehension and recall processes operate using causal chain representations. Compares the model's story-recall…

Determines the nature of time constraints under which readers generate superordinate goal inferences. Provides support for a global-coherence model of inference generation which argues for the importance of causal information in constructing a coherent text representation. (HB)

Investigates the hypothesis that one of the processes used in situation model development is an inferential process in which the reader employs knowledge to form expectations when predictive text opportunities arise. Suggests that predictions are available to the reader at an abstract level of representation. (HB)

Outlines three basic views of how readers infer causal connections and how they generate causal inferences. Evaluates these three hypotheses with reference to current research in the field. (HB)