The representation of text-based and situation-based information in discourse comprehension

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to assess selected aspects of Dell, McKoon, and Ratcliff's (1983, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 121–132) model of language comprehension. According to Dell et al., discourse is represented by interconnected propositions, and retrieval is determined by propositional structure. The experiments demonstrated that, first, recognition is facilitated for both the referents and the associates of pronominal anaphors; second, referents were recognized more efficiently than associates, regardless of anaphoric reference; and, third, manipulation of sentence voice (and, therefore topic salience) eliminated the difference between referents and associates, although it did not reverse it. Thus, while the basic findings on anaphoric reference are consistent with Dell et al.'s propositional account, because this model does not account for either the sustained difference between referents and associates or for the impact of sentence voice on recognition, they identify some limitations of the approach. The results highlight the importance of situation-based information in discourse comprehension and provide further general confirmation for the use of mental models in this domain. The proposal that discourse comprehension results in both text-based and situation-based representations was discussed.