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 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)

Examines how undergraduate readers monitor and evaluate the concerns of characters over the course of a narrative. Discusses what kinds of evaluation the reader makes, what the reader evaluates, the functions that these evaluative inferences serve in comprehension, and the multiple perspectives (character, narrator, or presenter) taken by the…

Use of cognitive capacity was measured during reading of text in six experiments. Results were consistent with a comprehensibility theory stating that when more meaning is produced in reader's cognitive system while reading a text, more cognitive capacity is filled by reading it. (FL)