Posits that intelligibility is a persistent problem in interactive multimedia and hypermedia. Describes the Art of Memory, a visual and symbolic mnemonic method used to map new information onto familiar and symbolically different structures. Presents the Art of Memory as a way to offer insight into intelligibility. (PA)

A method for providing a synthesis of the perspective that a text producer gives to a text in the moment of its production is presented in the form of a dialogue between reader and author. Perspective Text Analysis, the system presented, is a basic methodological part of a larger system of analyses. Linguistic data in the form of free text…

Discussion of natural language processing components of information retrieval systems focuses on a full-text system called TOPIC (Text-Oriented Procedures for Information Management and Condensation of Expository Texts) that is based on text parsing. Highlights include design rationales for semantic parsing; text coherence; and a semantic model of…

Presents a model to predict readability of documents encountered by older adults. Finds a correlation of 0.54 between the readability scores for test items predicted by the model and the percentage of older adults correctly answering those items. Finds that more difficult test items were correlated more highly with fluid intelligence abilities,…

Finds that the reader's purpose for reading (read-to-do or read-to-recall) partially determines what type of mental representation is stressed during comprehension. Finds that the processing of procedural text is codetermined by the participants' purpose for reading and type of text (narrative versus list-like) as well as the text structure (as…

Natural systems are self-organizing and stratify according to the angular articulation of their movements. In particular, movement is relative to the levels that define its behavior space. As natural phenomenon, text production is self-referential, In generating information, the intention of the producer of a text becomes specified. Specifying of…

The arrival of the digital age requires new approaches to understand the literacies used in making meanings from multimodal communications, and a rethinking of the ways in which research into these areas can be used to support learners in the 21st century. This presentation examines the range of literacies children have developed and used to make…

Two experiments involving 285 college students investigated effects of signaling devices (headings, overviews, and summaries) on text memory. Signals produced recalls better organized by text topics. Results support a model in which signals influence readers' representations of a text's topic structure, which in turn guides recall of text content.…

Describes a recursive transition network model that analyzes and represents a story as a causal network of categorized clauses and labeled relations. Reports on two experiments using procedural criteria to identify inferences and the assumptions that inferences operate over distances in the text and are transitive, resulting in a network…

Studies the comprehension processes of good and poor readers within a severe to profoundly deaf orally educated population. Supports a multiprocess model where an individual's knowledge both of text structures and of specific content areas play major roles. Shows that characteristics such as age and linguistic experience are important factors in…

The inaugural issue of "Topics in Language Disorders" included articles by Roth and Perfetti and Pearson and Spiro that reflected the thinking of the time on reading comprehension instruction. In this article, the author reviews the general direction of those contributions in light of current thinking and offers a model for organizing the…

This article presents and illustrates a formal model of linguistic analysis in order to explain a phenomenon that is fundamental to translators in their practice: the construction of coherence. First, the role of paragraphs in the construction of coherence is explained with the application of the model to a newspaper editorial. It is shown, in…

Students with learning disabilities (LD) often experience difficulties in writing fluently and using a diversity of words. To help these students, specific and effective writing strategies must be incorporated into instruction and demonstrated to them through modeling. This study examined the effectiveness of using a story map and story map…

A new approach to the study of text building behavior is possible through the application of Scanator. This paper consists of a demonstration of some of its fundamental functions. These are suitable in a study of text building. The basic concepts, expressed through an analysis of a small part of an interview text, derive from a thermodynamic…

This paper attempts to show that certain structural relations that contribute to creating text in spoken and written monologue also bind segments together in conversation. Methodology is based on a model of text as consisting of sequences of a problem-solution structure. Analysis of texts from 12 purpose-oriented telephone conversations focuses on…