[Egocentric inference of object positions during reading and listening]

Subjects read narratives describing several objects surrounding a protagonist. In taking the protagonist's perspective, subjects constructed egocentric mental models of the described object configurations. During the test phase, the mental model had to be updated according to reorientations of the protagonist. We examined if objects are localized immediately within the egocentric reference frame of the mental model, even if they are not linguistically localized relative to the protagonist, that is, if egocentric object positions have to be inferred. In two experiments, narratives and test items were presented either visually or aurally. In a third experiment, narratives were presented visually but test items were presented aurally. We found that recipients tended to localize every object immediately within the egocentric reference frame. But since reading interferes with updating of the mental model, subjects did not localize every object egocentrically if visual presentation was used throughout.