Mental models as representations of text

Abstract

A theory of text representation is outlined which suggests that a text is encoded in a mental model that contains representations of only those individuals and events that are relevant to the interpretation of the text in question. Such models are constructed on-line in response to cues in the text and with reference to knowledge about the world. An experiment is reported which demonstrates that mental models represent the events most probably described in a text. The results confirm previous findings that memory for the content of a passage is not based on the construction of one of its linguistically motivated representations. However, unlike most previous findings, they do support a positive proposal about the nature of the representations on which memory for content is based. © 1981 Psychonomic Society, Inc.