The computational implementation of the landscape model: Modeling inferential processes and memory representations of text comprehension

The complexity of text comprehension demands a computational approach to describe the cognitive processes involved. In this article, we present the computational implementation of the landscape model of reading. This model captures both on-line comprehension processes during reading and the off-line memory representation after reading is completed, incorporating both memory-based and coherence-based mechanisms of comprehension. The overall architecture and specific parameters of the program are described, and a running example is provided. Several studies comparing computational and behavioral data indicate that the implemented model is able to account for cycle-by-cycle comprehension processes and memory for a variety of text types and reading situations.

[1]  E. J. O'Brien,et al.  Sources of coherence in reading , 1995 .

[2]  Charles R. Fletcher,et al.  Surface forms, textbases, and situation models: Recognition memory for three types of textual information , 1990 .

[3]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Sentence memory: A theoretical analysis ☆ , 1990 .

[4]  Edward J.O’Brien and Jerome L.Myers.  Text Comprehension: A View From the Bottom Up , 1999 .

[5]  Charles R. Fletcher,et al.  Levels of representation in memory for discourse. , 1994 .

[6]  Paul van den Broek,et al.  The influence of reading purpose on inference generation and comprehension in reading. , 1999 .

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

[8]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Distributed memory and the representation of general and specific information. , 1985, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[9]  T. Trabasso.  Causal Cohesion and Story Coherence. , 1982 .

[10]  T. Trabasso,et al.  Minimal or Global Inference during Reading , 1994 .

[11]  P. Broek.  The causal inference maker: Towards a process model of inference generation in text comprehension. , 1990 .

[12]  Arthur C. Graesser,et al.  Dimensions of situation model construction in narrative comprehension. , 1995 .

[13]  James L. McClelland,et al.  A distributed model of human learning and memory , 1986 .

[14]  T. Trabasso,et al.  Constructing inferences during narrative text comprehension. , 1994 .

[15]  G. McKoon,et al.  Pronoun resolution without pronouns: some consequences of memory-based text processing. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[16]  M. Just,et al.  From the SelectedWorks of Marcel Adam Just 1992 A capacity theory of comprehension : Individual differences in working memory , 2017 .

[17]  Arthur N. Applebee.  The Child's Concept Of Story: Ages Two To Seventeen , 1978 .

[18]  W. Kintsch.  The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: a construction-integration model. , 1988, Psychological review.

[19]  Arthur C. Graesser,et al.  Structures and Procedures of Implicit Knowledge , 1985 .

[20]  T. Trabasso,et al.  Modeling causal integration and availability of information during comprehension of narrative texts. , 1999 .

[21]  Richard J. Gerrig,et al.  Readers' Trait-Based Models of Characters in Narrative Comprehension☆ , 2001 .

[22]  David A. Balota.  Comprehension Processes in Reading. , 1990 .

[23]  Jason E. Albrecht,et al.  Updating a situation model: a memory-based text processing view. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[24]  G. Bower,et al.  From conditioning to category learning: an adaptive network model. , 1988 .

[25]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Comprehension: A Paradigm for Cognition , 1998 .

[26]  Jerome L. Myers,et al.  Accessing the discourse representation during reading , 1998 .

[27]  P. Broek,et al.  The effects of reading purpose and working memory capacity on the processing of expository text. , 2002 .

[28]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Toward a model of text comprehension and production. , 1978 .

[29]  Rolf A. Zwaan,et al.  The Construction of Situation Models in Narrative Comprehension: An Event-Indexing Model , 1995 .

[30]  Morton Ann Gernsbacher,et al.  Language Comprehension As Structure Building , 1990 .

[31]  W. Kintsch,et al.  Strategies of discourse comprehension , 1983 .

[32]  David N. Rapp,et al.  Integrating Memory-Based and Constructionist Processes in Accounts of Reading Comprehension , 2005 .

[33]  Tracy Linderholm,et al.  Fluctuations in the Availability of Information During Reading: Capturing Cognitive Processes Using the Landscape Model , 2004, Discourse Processes.