Comprehending ambiguous texts: A high reading span helps to constrain the situation model

Abstract

Research has found that span measures of working memory often predict the quality of processes at the level of the text representation, but rarely at the level of the situation model. In the present study, the generality of this finding was reassessed. In two experiments, narratives conveying incremental amounts of diagnostic information about the situation described in the text were presented. The results indicated that comprehension processes at the situation model level were related to reading span. High-span readers had a better understanding than low-span readers of which situations were incompatible with the information they had read. High-span readers thus appeared better able to deactivate possible alternative representations of the situation constructed so far when those alternatives could be ruled out. The results are discussed in the context of text comprehension theories at the level of sentence versus situation model processing.