The representation of scripts in memory

Abstract Previous research has shown that people possess stereotyped knowledge about common events; that is, people have scripts containing information about the actions that comprise these events and about the temporal order of these actions. They use this knowledge in making inferences that help them to fill in gaps found in narratives or predict information to follow. The memory representation of common events was investigated by studying the pattern of inferences people make when they read descriptions of these events. People always made inferences that generalized the information presented. When a detail was presented, a more general concept of which it was a part was inferred. Readers often inferred items at the level of abstraction corresponding to scene headers when a sentence embodying a more abstract concept was stated. These results indicated that scripted events are represented in memory as hierarchically and temporally organized information packets. The connections between packets in the network are arranged in such a way that useful generalizations and predictions are available to aid people in understanding events.

[1]  B. Tversky,et al.  Objects, parts, and categories. , 1984 .

[2]  John B. Black,et al.  Scripts in memory for text , 1979, Cognitive Psychology.

[3]  William F. Brewer,et al.  Memory for goal-directed events , 1980, Cognitive Psychology.

[4]  John D. Bransford,et al.  Considerations of some problems of comprehension. , 1973 .

[5]  Earl D. Sacerdoti,et al.  Planning in a Hierarchy of Abstraction Spaces , 1974, IJCAI.

[6]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Fact retrieval and the paradox of interference , 1978, Cognitive Psychology.

[7]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Basic-level superiority in picture categorization , 1982 .

[8]  Wayne D. Gray,et al.  Basic objects in natural categories , 1976, Cognitive Psychology.

[9]  Lance J. Rips,et al.  Memory for routines , 1982 .

[10]  Cecil H. Brown.  general principles of human anatomical partonomy and speculations on the growth of partonomic nomenclature1 , 1976 .

[11]  Marcia K. Johnson,et al.  Contextual prerequisites for understanding: Some investigations of comprehension and recall , 1972 .

[12]  P. Thorndyke.  Cognitive structures in comprehension and memory of narrative discourse , 1977, Cognitive Psychology.

[13]  N. S. Johnson,et al.  Remembrance of things parsed: Story structure and recall , 1977, Cognitive Psychology.

[14]  Richard Edward Cullingford,et al.  Script application: computer understanding of newspaper stories. , 1977 .

[15]  John B. Black,et al.  STORY UNDERSTANDING AS PROBLEM-SOLVING * , 1980 .

[16]  John B. Black,et al.  Causal coherence and memory for events in narratives , 1981 .

[17]  D. Dooling,et al.  Effects of comprehension on retention of prose , 1971 .

[18]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Knowledge-based aspects of prose comprehension and readability , 1981 .

[19]  R. Abelson.  Psychological status of the script concept. , 1981 .

[20]  Perry W. Thorndyke,et al.  The role of inferences in discourse comprehension , 1976 .

[21]  G. Miller,et al.  Language and Perception , 1976 .

[22]  C SchankRoger,et al.  Dynamic Memory: A Theory of Reminding and Learning in Computers and People , 1983 .

[23]  Arthur C. Graesser,et al.  Structural components of reading time , 1980 .