Situation Model Processing Research Articles

The JOIs of text comprehension: Supplementing retrieval practice to enhance inference performance.

Previous research has shown that the Read-Recite-Review (3R) technique, a retrieval-based strategy, enhances free recall but not inference performance relative to a common note-taking strategy. We hypothesize that this may be because retrieval practice enhances memory processes without encouraging learners to build a coherent situation model, a type of processing necessary for successful inference performance. In 2 experiments, we attempted to enhance situation-model processing during restudy by incorporating judgments of inferencing (JOIs) within the 3R technique. In Experiment 1, participants studied a technical passage on brakes (or pumps) under 1 of 3 study conditions: a) standard 3R, b) 3R plus metacomprehension judgments, or c) note-taking plus metacomprehension judgments. The combination of retrieval practice and metacomprehension judgments (i.e., 3R plus metacomprehension) improved inference performance relative to the standard 3R and note-taking plus metacomprehension judgments conditions. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the type of metacomprehension judgments (JOIs vs. judgments of learning) and test-expectancy (TE) instructions. Our results indicated that only the addition of JOIs to the 3R strategy enhanced inference and problem-solving performance relative to the standard 3R condition. These findings suggest that making metacomprehension judgments may not be a neutral event; instead, making JOIs in concert with retrieval practice can influence people's subsequent study behavior, which in turn can have a positive impact on inference performance.

Working memory, situation models, and synesthesia.

Research on language comprehension suggests a strong relationship between working memory span measures and language comprehension. However, there is also evidence that this relationship weakens at higher levels of comprehension, such as the situation model level. The current study explored this relationship by comparing 10 grapheme-color synesthetes who have additional color experiences when they read words that begin with different letters and 48 normal controls on a number of tests of complex working memory capacity and processing at the situation model level. On all tests of working memory capacity, the synesthetes outperformed the controls. Importantly, there was no carryover benefit for the synesthetes for processing at the situation model level. This reinforces the idea that although some aspects of language comprehension are related to working memory span scores, this applies less directly to situation model levels. This suggests that theories of working memory must take into account this limitation, and the working memory processes that are involved in situation model construction and processing must be derived.

The Interaction Between Temporal and Spatial Information in the Updating of Situation Model

Situation models refer to discourse representations that capture aspects of a micro-world created by the reader. They include five dimensions: temporality, spatiality, causality, intentionality, and protagonist. Researchers have tended to focus on the construction of situation models from a single dimension perspective. In earlier studies, researchers explored the effects of temporal or spatial information, but more recently some have redirected their attention to the interaction of temporal or spatial information with the other three dimensions of situational models. However, no experimental studies have examined the relationship between temporal and spatial information. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the interaction between temporal and spatial information. Time is linear and continuous, but space is three-dimensional and discontinuous. There were three possible relations between time and space, which were independent, inhibitory and facilitating. So, the secondary purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between temporal and spatial information in situation model processing. Ninety-seven college students participated in this study: 36 in Experiment 1, 37 in Experiment 2, and 24 in Experiment 3. In Experiment 1 we explored the relationship between temporal and spatial information when time and space dimension shifted simultaneously. In Experiment 2 we examined the interaction between timeand space when the temporal dimension and spatial dimension shifted serially. In Experiment 3, which included bilingual student proficient in English and Chinese, we used English texts to test the possible interference caused by the habits of language expression to further explore the interaction of temporal and spatial information when the time and space dimension shifted serially. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that reading time was shorter when temporal and spatial information shifted simultaneously than when either the temporal or spatial dimension shifted. This finding suggested a facilitating effect between temporal and spatial information. Results of Experiment 2 showed that when temporal and spatial information shifted and the temporal dimension shifted first, reading time was shorter than when only one dimension shifted. This finding suggested that the shift in the temporal dimension had a facilitating effect on the shift in spatial information. Results of Experiment 3 were similar to those of Experiment 1, but also showed that the time dimension had a more significant facilitating effect on the processing of the spatial information shift. In sum, we found that when temporal and spatial information shifted simultaneously there was a facilitating effect between the two dimensional shifts, but that the facilitating effect of the temporal dimension on the spatial dimension was stronger than that of the spatial dimension on the temporal dimension. We also found that when temporal and spatial information shifted serially, only temporal information had a significant facilitating effect on the space dimension. However, this effect was found only with bilingual students using Chinese materials. When bilingual students read English materials, there was a mutual facilitating effect between the two dimensional shifts, but the temporal dimension had a more facilitating effect on the spatial dimension. Together, the results showed that the updating of temporal and spatial information in situation models is bound together. The results are discussed in terms of binding-expectancy hypothesis.

Aging and mind wandering during text comprehension.

Mind wandering occurs when a person's stream of thought moves from the primary task to task-unrelated matters. Some theories of mind wandering suggest that it is caused by decreased attentional control associated with lower working memory (WM) capacity. Others suggest that it is caused by attention being directed toward internally generated thoughts and that it is associated with higher WM capacity. These ideas were assessed testing older adults because they have been argued to have reduced attentional control and lower WM capacity. The first account predicts that mind wandering should increase in older adults, while the second account predicts the opposite. Two experiments show that older adults exhibited a lower rate of mind wandering than younger adults. However, when using text interest as a covariate, the age difference in mind wandering disappeared. These results are further addressed in light of participants' current concerns and preserved situation model processing in cognitive aging.

Aging and perceived event structure as a function of modality

ABSTRACT The majority of research on situation model processing in older adults has focused on narrative texts. Much of this research has shown that many important aspects of constructing a situation model for a text are preserved and may even improve with age. However, narratives need not be text-based, and little is known as to whether these findings generalize to visually-based narratives. The present study assessed the impact of story modality on event segmentation, which is a basic component of event comprehension. Older and younger adults viewed picture stories or read text versions of them and segmented them into events. There was comparable alignment between the segmentation judgments and a theoretically guided analysis of shifts in situational features across modalities for both populations. These results suggest that situation models provide older adults with a stable basis for event comprehension across different modalities of expereinces.

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

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.

The Functions of Goal State and Temporal Information on Situation Model Processing

Situation model is the deep representation of text reading combined with readers' background knowledge,which involves several dimensions,of which goal state and time representation are most important.A goal is an effective mechanism of foregrounding,and tracing the goal helps to comprehend the causality of the story (Zwaan,1998).Although recent research of time representation focuses on the temporal shift and temporal distance,most studies repeatedly verified Anderson,Garrod,and Sanford's (1983) scenario model and Zwaan's (1996) strong iconicity assumption.Kelter et al.(2004) found the far-close effect of temporal distance and differentiated tracking as temporal distance from a fresh start as temporal shift.Claus et al.(2006) preliminarily explored the relationship between temporal representation and the construction of flashback events.To date,however,no study investigated the relationship between goal state and time representation,and in fact,whether temporal information is continuity or interruption counters for utilizing,continuously tracking,and integrating goal information.Hence the present study is to explore the functions of goal state and temporal information on situation model processing.A total 174 eighth grade students participated in this study,with 60 participants in experiment group 1,60 in experiment group 2,and 54 in experiment group 3,respectively.Using moving window and recording the time of recognition sentence technique,three experiments were designed to explore the functions of goal state and temporal information on situation model processing on Pentium III computer,using E-Prime software.Subjects were required to self-regulate their reading.When subjects finish reading one sentence and press the space key,next sentence emerged and the former sentence disappeared.After finishing one text,the emergence of a red "?????" prompted subjects to answer a comprehensive question about the text.The reaction time of probe sentences were recorded and analyzed with repeated measure MANOVA.The results of experiment 1 indicated that the goal state and temporal shift were interrelated to each other.In the conditions of null goal and completed goal,the larger temporal shift took the subjects more time to read the probing sentence;furthermore,different time shifts (small and large) have varied effects on situation model processing.In the condition of uncompleted goal,however,there was no significant difference in the time used for the probing sentence with small or large temporal shift.In experiment 2,reading with the probing sentence in the condition of uncompleted goal was faster than that in the condition of null goal and completed goal;reading with the probing sentence in the condition of small temporal distance was faster than in the condition of large temporal distance.Additionally,when the temporal distance became larger,the reaction time of reading with probing sentence in the condition of uncompleted goal did not differ significantly from those in the condition of null goal and completed goal.In experiment 3,when the factor of goal was given in the form of flashback events,the main effect of goal state on information integration was significant:reading with the probing sentence with no goal was faster than that in the condition of null goal and completed goal.To conclude,this study found that:(1) in the sequential event structure,uncompleted goal,i.e.,the focus of continuously tracking,cannot help the integration of the text information in the condition of increasing temporal shift;uncompleted goal accelerates representing the information and no far-close effects appear.(2) in the sequential texts,in the condition of no goal and completed goal,large-small effects with increasing temporal shift and far-close effects of temporal distance are evidenced;in the process of constructing the flashback events,the reader represents the flashback events as the background of temporal distance,and the goal enhances integration of information.

Neural substrates of narrative comprehension and memory

When reading a narrative, comprehension and retention of information benefit considerably from the use of situation models — coherent representations of the characters, locations, and activities described in the text. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the neural mechanisms supporting situation model processing. Participants read blocks of sentences that were either unrelated to one another or formed coherent narratives. A timecourse-based approach was used to identify regions that differentiated narrative-level comprehension from sentence-level comprehension. Most brain regions that showed modulation of activation during narrative-level comprehension were also modulated to a lesser extent during sentence-level comprehension, suggesting a shared reliance on general coherence-building mechanisms. However, tentative evidence was found for narrative-specific activation in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Additional analyses identified spatiotemporally distinct neural contributions to situation model processing, with posterior parietal regions supporting situation model construction and frontotemporal regions supporting situation model maintenance. Finally, a set of subsequent memory analyses demonstrated that the boost in comprehension and memory performance observed for coherent materials was attributable to the use of integrative situation models rather than lower-level differences in sentence-level or word-level encoding. These results clarify the functional contributions of distinct brain systems to situation model processing and their mapping onto existing psychological models of narrative comprehension.

Aging and situation model processing

Over the past several years, a number of studies have been done that assess processing at the level of the situation model in relation to issues of aging (Morrow, Leirer, & Altieri, 1992; Radvansky, Copeland, Berish, & Dijkstra, 2003; Radvansky, Copeland, & Zwaan, 2003; Stine-Morrow, Gagne, Morrow, & DeWall, 2004; Stine-Morrow, Morrow, & Leno, 2002). In contrast to age-related declines that have been demonstrated at surface form and textbase levels of processing, no such declines have been found in the creation and updating of situation models (Radvansky, 1999). This review focuses on the relevant factors in cognitive aging and situation model processing and places them within the larger frameworks of language processing, working memory capacity, and aging.

Time, space and emotion: fMRI reveals content-specific activation during text comprehension

Story comprehension involves building a situation model of the text, i.e., a representation containing information on the who, where, when and why of the story. Using fMRI at 3T, domain-specific activations for three different information aspects were sought. Twenty participants read two sentence stories half of which contained inconsistencies concerning emotional, temporal or spatial information. Partly replicating previous results [E.C. Ferstl, M. Rinck, D.Y. von Cramon, Emotional and temporal aspects of situation model processing during text comprehension: an event-related fMRI study, J. Cogn. Neurosci. 17 (2005) 724-739], the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex/orbito-frontal cortex proved important for processing temporal information. The left anterior temporal lobe was particularly important during emotional stories. Most importantly, spatial information elicited bilateral activation in the collateral sulci and the posterior cingulate cortex, areas important for visuo-spatial cognition. These findings provide further evidence for content-specific processes during text comprehension.

Memory retrieval and interference: Working memory issues

Working memory capacity has been suggested as a factor that is involved in long-term memory retrieval, particularly when that retrieval involves a need to overcome some sort of interference (Bunting, Conway, & Heitz, 2004; Cantor & Engle, 1993). Previous work has suggested that working memory is related to the acquisition of information during learning, along with the management of interference and the use of inhibition during long-term memory retrieval. This paper reports a study that further addressed the role of working memory capacity on long-term memory retrieval. Our results showed that working memory capacity is somewhat related to the integration of information into situation models, and the management of interference, but not to the ability to suppress irrelevant information. The role of other cognitive processes, such as general situation model processing and general inhibitory ability, were also explored.

Emotional and Temporal Aspects of Situation Model Processing during Text Comprehension: An Event-Related fMRI Study

Language comprehension in everyday life requires the continuous integration of prior discourse context and general world knowledge with the current utterance or sentence. In the neurolinguistic literature, these so-called situation model building processes have been ascribed to the prefrontal cortex or to the right hemisphere. In this study, we use whole-head event-related fMRI to directly map the neural correlates of narrative comprehension in context. While being scanned using a spin-echo sequence, 20 participants listened to 32 short stories, half of which contained globally inconsistent information. The inconsistencies concerned either temporal or chronological information or the emotional status of the protagonist. Hearing an inconsistent word elicited activation in the right anterior temporal lobe. The comparison of different information aspects revealed activation in the left precuneus and a bilateral frontoparietal network for chronological information. Emotional information elicited activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the extended amygdaloid complex. In addition, the integration of inconsistent emotional information engaged the dorsal frontomedial cortex (Brodmann's area 8/9), whereas the integration of inconsistent temporal information required the lateral prefrontal cortex bilaterally. These results indicate that listening to stories can elicit activation reflecting content-specific processes. Furthermore, updating of the situation model is not a unitary process but it also depends on the particular requirements of the text. The right hemisphere contributes to language processing in context, but equally important are the left medial and bilateral prefrontal cortices.

Age differences in rereading

Younger and older adults read a series of expository and narrative passages twice in order to answer comprehension questions. Reading time was used to index attentional allocation to word, textbase, and situation model processing and to assess shifts in the allocation policy from the first to the second reading. Older readers' comprehension was at least as good as that of younger readers. Analysis of reading times suggested that for both genres, older adults allocated more attention to situation model features than younger adults did on the first reading, whereas young and old allocated attention similarly to this level of representation on the second reading, suggesting that mature readers may give greater priority to situation model construction when first encountering text. Also, for both genres, older adults showed relatively less facilitation than the young in word-level processing in rereading, suggesting that representation at this level is not as firmly established during reading or decays more quickly for older readers. For narrative texts only, this pattern also obtained for textbase processing. Collectively, these data show that age equivalence in text comprehension at the molar level may be accomplished through different processing routes at the molecular level.

Aging and the representation of spatial situations in narrative understanding.

Age differences in the construction of the situation model during text understanding were investigated. Situation model processing was measured in terms of the distance effect, the tendency for readers to process information about objects in a narrative more quickly when the objects are spatially closer to the protagonist than when they are farther away. To examine readers' ability to construct the model directly from the text, the distance effect was contrasted for objects that were either presented in a layout of the narrative setting prior to reading (learned objects) or introduced in the narrative itself (new objects). Both younger and older readers showed strong distance effects for learned objects. When objects had not been learned but were only introduced in the text, however, younger adults did not show a reliable distance effect. Older adults with high levels of comprehension did, lending support to the position that older readers differentially rely on the situation model for effective narrative understanding.

Working memory and situation model updating

Situation model updating requires managing the availability of information as a function of its relevance to the current situation. This is thought to involve some aspect of working memory. The present study assesses the relation between updating ability and various measures of working memory span or capacity. In addition, a primitive general measure of situation model processing, a situation model identification test, and its relation to updating ability was also assessed. The present experiment used a version of a paradigm developed by Glenberg, Meyer, and Lindem (1987) to assess updating. Although updating was observed in both anaphoric reading time and recognition test accuracy measures, the reading time measure was relatively weak. Importantly, the updating effect on the recognition test was unrelated to working memory capacity. In contrast, updating was related to performance on the situation model identification task. Specifically, people who were good at model processing were better able to keep associated objects available than were people who were less adept. There were no differences in the maintenance of dissociated objects. These results suggest that the relationship between situation model processing and working memory capacity is relatively weak.