Presents evidence in support of the ordered search model of word meaning computation in sentence contexts. This model hypothesizes that access to multiple meanings occurs in a fixed order regardless of context. (AM)

The way in which knowledge of a given topic influences the acquisition of topic-related information was studied with the knowledge domain of baseball. A knowledge structure was postulated that included the goal structure as well as the states and actions of the game. (SW)

The way in which previously acquired knowledge affects the processing on new domain-related information was investigated. Text processing was studied in two groups differing in knowledge of the domain of baseball. A knowledge structure for the domain was constructed, and text propositions were classified. (SW)

Five experiments were conducted that illustrate microprocesses of discourse comprehension related to foregrounding. An intermediate case in which prior memories exist but must be reinstated to active memory was studied in detail. (SW)

A schema-based framework for representing knowledge and prose organization was studied. Testing of a script pointer and tag hypothesis confirmed that memory discrimination is better for atypical actions in a passage than for typical script actions and that there is no memory discrimination for very typical actions. (SW)