Mental Models and Narrative Comprehension: Some Qualifications

Abstract

In a series of experiments we investigated the nature of mental representations created during narrative comprehension. Subjects learned the layout of a research center and then read a series of stories about characters performing various tasks in the center. Accessibility of information was measured by periodically interrupting the narratives with a pair of object names (object probes) or a protagonist name and an object name (protagonist probes). The subjects′ task was to indicate whether the probed items were in the same room or in different rooms of the learned layout. The results indicated that the presence of protagonist probes was necessary for the construction of detailed situation models (e.g., Bower & Morrow, 1990; Morrow, Bower, & Greenspan, 1989; Morrow, Greenspan. & Bower, 1987). Therefore, it is important to consider task demands and reader goals when investigating the structure and the content of mental representations created during narrative comprehension.