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Starting from scratch and building brick by brick in comprehension
Christopher A Kurby1, Jeffrey M Zacks
1Department of Psychology, Grand Valley State University, 2224 Au Sable Hall, Allendale, MI 49401, USA. kurbyc@gvsu.edu
Memory & Cognition
|January 28, 2012
Summary
Readers update their understanding of stories both gradually and by starting over when events change. This research explores incremental and global situation model updating during narrative comprehension.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Natural Language Processing
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Narrative comprehension involves constructing situation models.
- Two proposed update types: incremental (dimensions) and global (new model).
- Previous research lacked direct testing of both update types.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if readers use both incremental and global updating during narrative comprehension.
- To test competing theories of situation model construction.
Main Methods:
- Participants engaged in think-aloud protocols while reading an extended narrative.
- Think-aloud responses were coded for situation model dimensions (characters, objects, space, time, goals, causes).
- Narratives were segmented into meaningful events to analyze updating patterns.
Main Results:
- Evidence supports both incremental and global updating.
- Situation dimensions were mentioned more when they changed, controlling for event onset.
- Dimensions were also mentioned more at event beginnings than middles, controlling for situational change.
Conclusions:
- Readers engage in both incremental and global situation model updating.
- Findings support theories positing dual updating mechanisms in narrative comprehension.
- This dual updating enhances understanding of complex narratives.
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