This report examines the theory that when people understand a text, they create a complex scenario (or model) within which the events described might plausibly occur. In order to study construction and revision of such models, five subjects were given difficult-to-understand texts, and were later asked to discuss the processing they went through…

This paper discusses the kind of knowledge and strategies necessary to understand a metaphor. Studies of six year olds indicate that they fail to recognize that metaphors are intended nonliterally. At about the age of ten, children begin to give appropriate explanations. Children on the verge of metaphoric understanding of metaphors which link…

Two fundamental assumptions guide this survey of recent research on anaphora. The first is that anaphoric expressions do not refer to segments in a text or discourse, but to entities that are assumed to be in the language receiver's mind. The second assumption is that a text serves to suggest the referents for anaphora, as does the nonlinguistic…

Three experiments explored whether recoding to speech during reading occurs before or after lexical access, or not at all. Tests determined the effects of a concurrent shadowing task on lexical information retrieval. Results indicate a model of reading in which speech recoding occurs after lexical access, with temporary word storage. (CHK)

Experiments were done for comprehension and recall using short English texts with a controlled number of words and propositions but differing in the number of word concepts in the text base. Reading time was longer and recall less for texts with more word concepts. (SC)

The first part of this paper on prose analysis explains how structural analysis of text can be used in reading research. This explanation focuses on three methodological uses of prose analysis: (1) the identification of the content and organization of the text for use in a scoring system, (2) the measurement of variations between the text and the…

A study was conducted to find a manipulation that could be performed on a text (roughly analogous to real instructional material) which would lead readers to process that text more efficiently. One-hundred five college students were placed into either an experimental or a control group. Students in the control group were given an unchanged version…

Ninety college students wrote free-recall protocols immediately after reading each of three different passages in a study of how three factors affected the comprehension and recall of expository discourse. The three factors were the order in which a passage was read within a series of passages, the rhetorical predicate structure of the passage…

Based on data drawn from a larger study concerning what people learn from television news broadcasts, this paper suggests ways that researchers might conceptualize audience comprehension of television news. Following a review of the information processing literature, the paper analyzes several conceptualizations taken from the literature and…

Thirty-two intellectually superior and 32 intellectually normal fifth and sixth graders were compared on measures of attention and comprehension of complex verbal stimuli under successive versus simultaneous modes of presentation. Ss were exposed to either successive or simultaneous presentation of printed short stories on slides. Analysis of…

This paper presents a study of children's abilities to make inferences about an actor's plans and to use these inferences to assign blame and praise. Preschool children were presented with eight stories combining good and bad intentions with final outcomes that were either intended or accidental (foreseeable or unforeseeable side effects). Results…

INTELLECTUAL, EDUCATIONAL, NEUROLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS IN VARIOUS PATTERNS OF INTERRELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE THE THINKING PROCESS. INDIVIDUALS DIFFER IN THE CONCEPTS THEY HOLD AND IN THEIR USE OF THESE CONCEPTS BECAUSE OF VARIATIONS IN INTELLIGENCE AND BACKGROUND OF EXPERIENCE. THE RANGE AND LEVEL OF CONCEPTS…

In a study of individual differences in long-term memory access, university undergraduates verified (1) whether an item was a member of a category; (2) whether two items belonged in the same category; and (3) whether two words had the same name. Reaction times from these tasks were correlated with verbal ability, as measured by performance on a…

A study was conducted to examine the process of the development of knowledge structures concerning events. Specifically, it investigated (1) the ways in which individuals build theories about events as they experience them; (2) the number of events an individual must experience, and how similar those events must be, before he or she begins to…