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Revising what readers know: updating text representations during narrative comprehension
David N Rapp1, Panayiota Kendeou
1School of Education and Social Policy & Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA. rapp@northwestern.edu
Memory & Cognition
|February 13, 2008
Summary
Readers may struggle to update their understanding of story characters when new information arises. Specific instructions and clear explanations are crucial for successful revision during reading comprehension.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Reading Comprehension Research
- Narrative Understanding
Background:
- Reading comprehension requires updating existing knowledge based on new information.
- Readers often form trait-based models of characters, which can resist change.
- Successful comprehension of unfolding narratives depends on revising initial expectations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate factors influencing readers' revision of character trait models.
- To assess the impact of task instructions on revision likelihood.
- To examine the role of content-driven refutations in promoting revision.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted to test conditions for revising trait-based character models.
- Participants' revision tendencies were assessed under varying task instructions.
- The effectiveness of refutations with and without explicit explanations was evaluated.
Main Results:
- Task instructions to consider story outcomes facilitated revision.
- Revision without explicit instructions occurred only when refutations provided sufficient justification for updating.
- Experiment 3 confirmed the significant influence of instructions on revision propensities.
Conclusions:
- Reader revision of character models is influenced by explicit instructions and the clarity of contradictory information.
- Understanding the mechanisms of revision is key to explaining moment-by-moment narrative comprehension.
- Future research can leverage these findings to explore reader engagement and text processing.
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