Notes that, since fictional discourse need not reflect prevailing systems of meaning and norms or values, readers gain detachment from their own presuppositions; by constituting and formulating text-sense, readers are constituting and formulating their own cognition and becoming aware of the operations for doing so. (FL)

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)

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)

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)

Considers the difference between commonplace inferences versus more elusive inferences in reading processes. Claims that higher level inferences may be restricted in part because they do not operate in response to simple memory symbols but depend on complex compositional representations not always available. (HB)

Suggests that the term "inference" itself has had a negative effect on the study of how information is elaborated and reduced in text processing. Discusses some of the current views of inferencing in text comprehension. Suggests viewing information reduction processes within the same framework as information accretion. (HB)

Reports the findings of a study showing that the importance or salience of a text at the time of reading has little effect on recognition of specific features from the prose. (HTH)

Studies how readers process text in the absence or presence of a relevant schema. Analyzes the results of a study in which subjects were required to read vague texts. Indicates that schemas affect on-line comprehension and that reading without a schema involves certain key strategies. (HB)

Investigates whether spatial situation models are constructed in naturalistic story comprehension. Claims that, during normal reading, readers are not very much engaged in constructing, maintaining, and updating a spatial situation model. (HB)

Explores four views of the role of interclausal connectives as a set of linguistic devices that help the reader interpret a narrative text. Finds that interclausal connectives carry meaning, connect textual meaning at both local and global levels, and mark discourse continuity and discontinuity both in the text and as inferred by the reader. (SR)

Notes that less skilled readers have difficulty suppressing active, but irrelevant, information during comprehension. Investigates whether the mechanism responsible for suppressing the inappropriate meaning of a word is an automatic process or a strategic, controlled one. Finds that less skilled readers may have difficulty executing a strategic…

Examines two texts showing that the relational propositions (frequently implicit) that arise out of a combination of independent clauses involve every clause and that they occur in a pattern of propositions that connects all of the clauses together. Shows how relational propositions are essential to the functioning of the text. (HTH)

Indicates a facilitation in undergraduate students' reading time for congruent text marking for both cohesion and textual structure that manifested itself at different points in the sentence. Suggests that readers are highly sensitive to coherence marking devices, and strictly local coherence models cannot completely account for what readers are…

Describes a study contrasting hierarchical and causal approaches to story understanding indicating that when the number of causal connections increases, the likelihood of summarization for both goal and other statements increases. Suggests that the importance accorded to a statement in a story structure is the result of causal reasoning during…

Explores how undergraduate readers take the protagonist's mental perspective in stories involving conflicting beliefs about a situation. Demonstrates that readers with privileged information build emotional inference corresponding to the protagonist's (wrong) beliefs; inferences related to protagonist's beliefs are backward inferences at the text…