Kintsch's Model Research Articles

Interaction between levels of text representation and working memory during L2 reading comprehension: What about it?

AbstractThe relationship between L2 reading comprehension and working memory has been studied for years, and previous studies highlight the existence of a correlation between the two. However, to our knowledge, no previous study used Kintsch's Multilevel Comprehension Model to operationalize reading comprehension in the investigation of its relationship with working memory. More specifically, according to Kintsch's model, comprehension consists of three text representation levels—the surface level (the literal wording of the text), the textbase (which includes inferences made by the reader), and the situation model (the integration of explicit and implicit text information with readers’ background knowledge). Therefore, the study reported in this paper examined the contribution of working memory, the short‐term retention of information and its manipulation, to different text representation levels during L2 reading comprehension. To do so, fifty‐five (N = 55) adult L2 learners of French completed L2 reading comprehension task tapping into three levels of text representation and a numerical complex working memory task. The results showed, on the one hand, a significant contribution of working memory to L2 reading comprehension and, on the other hand, that this relationship was specifically observed with the situation model.

Object-Oriented Program Comprehension: Effect of Expertise, Task and Phase

The goal of our study is to evaluate the effect on program comprehension of three factors that have not previously been studied in a single experiment. These factors are programmer expertise (expert versus novice), programming task (documentation versus reuse), and the development of understanding over time (phase 1 versus phase 2). This study is carried out in the context of the mental model approach to comprehension based on van Dijk and Kintsch's model l(1983) Strategies of Discourse Comprehension. New York: Academicr. One key aspect of this model is the distinction between two kinds of representation the reader might construct from a text: (1) the textbase, which refers to what is said in the text and how it is said, and (2) the situation model, which represents the situation referred to by the text. We have evaluated the effect of the three factors mentioned above on the development of both the textbase (or program model) and the situation model in object-oriented program comprehension. We found a four-way interaction of expertise, phase, task and type of model. For the documentation group we found that experts and novices differ in the elaboration of their situation model but not their program model. There was no interaction of expertise with phase and type of model in the documentation group. For the reuse group, there was a three-way interaction between phase, expertise and type of model. For the novice reuse group, the effect of the phase was to increase the construction of the situation model but not the program model. With respect to the task, our results show that novices do not spontaneously construct a strong situation model but are able to do so if the task demands it.

Main idea comprehension: training teachers and effects on students

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a study with two objectives. First, to test the effectiveness of a programme – carried out by teachers in natural contexts – for teaching the process of main idea identification. Second, to test whether the relationship between process and product variables are those expected according to the Van Dijk and Kintsch model (1983). In the first part of the study (Alonso‐Tapia and Carriedo, in press) teachers had been trained in what to teach about main idea comprehension and how to teach it according to a model of teachers’ training. After receiving training, the experimental group of teachers (n = 11), who had improved more than the control group (n= 15) in knowledge of main ideas and of comprehension training strategies, had to apply the strategies and the instruction method learned, whilst teaching their students (6th, 7th and 8th grades). Pupils of experimental and of control teachers (n= 303 and 287 respectively) were assessed in order to test whether, after training, the former overtook the latter in main idea identification and in knowledge of the strategies related to this process. Results show that the experimental group of students performed better than the control group in the variables trained. Theoretical implications about the variables mediating the process of main idea identification are also discussed.

Mathematical aspects of Kintsch's model of discourse comprehension.

Mathematical aspects of Kintsch's model of discourse comprehension.

Mathematical aspects of Kintsch's model of discourse comprehension.

Kintsch (1988) presented a model of discourse comprehension that draws substantially on connectionist ideas. The model gives rise to some mathematical questions that are not explicitly stated in Kintsch's article. In this note, some of these questions are investigated, thus giving theoretical support to the model

A comparison of the sensitivity of two prose analysis models to developmental differences in free recall of text∗

Two prose analysis models (Kintsch, 1974; Meyer, 1975) were compared to determine the sensitivity of each to developmental differences in children's recall of prose. The Meyer analysis revealed that older “good” readers showed significantly higher recall of certain idea units than younger “good” readers or “poor” readers of any age. This analysis suggests that older “good” readers are better able to recall certain implicit semantic relationships than their younger or less skilled counterparts. The analysis using the Kintsch model did not reveal any such apparent developmental differences. The authors conclude that the Meyer model, because it explicitly describes the high‐level organization of text of a passage, is more sensitive to such developmental differences.

Superordinate—subordinate structure in semantic memory: The roles of comprehension and retrieval processes

In the first of two experiments, third-grade, sixth-grade, and college-age subjects were asked either to generate passages to be recalled two weeks later (good comprehension condition), or to listen to recordings of passages generated by other subjects and recall them two weeks later (average comprehension condition). Both the initial passages and the recall protocols were analysed using the propositional representation developed in Kintsch's model of semantic memory. At each age higher-order propositions were recalled better than lower-order propositions, extending the generality of Kintsch's model across a wide range of ages. In addition, the comprehension manipulation failed to interact with recall across rank of proposition indicating that the differential recall phenomenon is not a product of subject-initiated comprehension strategies. In Experiment 2, the recall contingencies between superordinate and subordinate propositions were analysed. The results indicated that a proposition is more likely to be recalled when a proposition to which it is subordinate is also recalled. These results support an interpretation of differential recall across superordinate—subordinate structure which emphasizes the interaction of the structure of the representation of meaning in memory (as defined by Kintsch's model) and retrieval processes.