Proposes a typology of verbal-like sequences of thought that spontaneously pass through people's minds, based on the epistemic status (thought, memory, enactment, meta-observation, and control) of the expressions composing such sequences. (SR)

Offers a brief overview of the Structure Building Framework, a simple framework for describing the cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in discourse comprehension. Reviews the seminal work on which it is based (the first decade of structure-building research); and recounts the research conducted by the author to test the Structure Building…

Examines the pattern of eye movements of skilled adult readers when encountering a surprise ending to a story. Suggests that processing at the discourse level must be considered as an influence on the eye movement control system. (NKA)

Suggests that metaphors in text are processed differently from literal language. Indicates that more information was remembered when the context did not contain metaphors and when the target paragraph was more important in the hierarchy of the passage. (NKA)

Respectively, three experiments indicate that (1) people can identify all the terminal units in stories as well as different kinds of episodic structure; (2) when attention was focused on the intermediate units, the Goal Path emerged in the judgments; and (3) the same judgments about terminal units were made even when the number of sentences per…

Indicates that (1) readers determine topic interrelations as they encounter new topics during reading, (2) better recallers are more consistent about inferring topic interrelations, and (3) better recallers are more flexible in their processing of topic information. (NKA)

Examines (in two experiments) the effects of schematic and proposition-specific processing on long term story memory. Determines that recall of idea units was an additive function of the idea's importance. Finds that both proposition-specific and schema-related processing are important for long-term retention of narrative prose. (SKC)