A Model of the Time Course and Content of Reading

This paper describes a computer simulation of reading that is strongly driven by eye fixation data from human readers. The simulation, READER, is a natural language understanding system that reads a text word by word and whose processing cycles on each word have some correspondence with the human gaze duration on that word. READER operates within a newly developed information processing architecture, a Collaborative, Activation-based, Production System (CAPS) that permits the modeling of the temporal properties of human comprehension. CAPS allows for concurrent, collaborative execution of processes operating at different levels of analysis. As READER encounters each successive word, the word is operated on by processes at the levels of word encoding, lexical access, syntactic and semantic analysis, and referential and schema-level processes. Like human readers, READER uses a strategy of immediacy of comprehension, attempting to interpret each word as soon as it is encountered, rather than unnecessarily buffering information. A major contribution of this simulation is its use of human performance characteristics in constraining and determining the model's mechanisms.

[1]  William A. Woods,et al.  Computational Linguistics Transition Network Grammars for Natural Language Analysis , 2022 .

[2]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Comprehension and recall of text as a function of content variables , 1975 .

[3]  R. Jarvella.  Syntactic processing of connected speech , 1971 .

[4]  Rudolf Groner,et al.  Cognition and eye movements , 1982 .

[5]  H. Edward Tryk.  Subjective scaling and word frequency. , 1968 .

[6]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Readability and recall of short prose passages: A theoretical analysis. , 1980 .

[7]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Lexical retrieval and error recovery in reading: A model based on eye fixations , 1981 .

[8]  Marvin Minsky,et al.  Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry , 1969 .

[9]  Chuck Rieger,et al.  FIVE ASPECTS OF A FULL-SCALE STORY COMPREHENSION MODEL , 1979 .

[10]  Robert F. Stanners,et al.  Frequency and visual quality in a word-nonword classification task , 1975 .

[11]  John J. L. Morton,et al.  Interaction of information in word recognition. , 1969 .

[12]  K. Rayner.  The perceptual span and peripheral cues in reading , 1975, Cognitive Psychology.

[13]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  An Integrated Understander , 1980, Am. J. Comput. Linguistics.

[14]  J. Anderson,et al.  Memory for information about individuals , 1977, Memory & cognition.

[15]  H. H. Clark,et al.  What's new? Acquiring New information as a process in comprehension , 1974 .

[16]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  Conceptual dependency: A theory of natural language understanding , 1972 .

[17]  J. Flavell.  Metacognitive aspects of problem solving , 1976 .

[18]  S. L. Ehrenreich,et al.  Structure and Search of the Internal Lexicon. , 1979 .

[19]  John R. Anderson.  Language, Memory, and Thought , 1976 .

[20]  M A Just,et al.  A theory of reading: from eye fixations to comprehension. , 1980, Psychological review.

[21]  Terry Winograd,et al.  Understanding natural language , 1974 .

[22]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Individual differences in working memory and reading , 1980 .

[23]  Michael C. McCord,et al.  Slot Grammars , 1980, CL.

[24]  Charles J. Fillmore,et al.  THE CASE FOR CASE. , 1967 .

[25]  K. Forster,et al.  Lexical storage and retrieval of polymorphemic and polysyllabic words. , 1976 .

[26]  Thomas H. Killion,et al.  Interaction of visual and cognitive effects in word recognition. , 1977 .

[27]  D. Kieras.  Component processes in the comprehension of simple prose , 1981 .

[28]  William A. Woods,et al.  Cascaded ATN Grammars , 1980, Am. J. Comput. Linguistics.

[29]  P. Dixon,et al.  Word repetition, lexical access, and the process of searching words and sentences , 1979 .

[30]  Allan Collins,et al.  A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing , 1975 .

[31]  H. Kucera,et al.  Computational analysis of present-day American English , 1967 .

[32]  K. Rayner,et al.  Eye Movements in Reading: Perceptual and Language Processes , 1985 .

[33]  Marcel Adam Just,et al.  Real Reading Behavior , 1980, ACL.

[34]  Don L. Scarborough,et al.  Frequency and Repetition Effects in Lexical Memory. , 1977 .

[35]  M. Just,et al.  Remembering the Location and Content of Sentences in a Prose Passage. , 1976 .

[36]  Allen Newell,et al.  Harpy, production systems and human cognition , 1978 .