A model of reader strategy for abstracting main ideas from simple technical prose

This report presents detailed results on performance in a comprehension task in which the reader must devise a brief Statement of the main idea of short technical passages. The passage structure consisted ofa generalization followed by several examples, and appeared either with or without an initial 'topic sentence' stating the generalization. Data on response content, reading time, ratings of importance o f passage sentences, and 'think aloud' protocols were collected. The results suggest that most readers use a simple strategy tailored to the generalization structure of the passages. This strategy reflects both a reliance on the surface struc ture o f the passage, suchaswhatisfirstmentioned, and use of a moderate, but not complete, understanding ofthe actual passage content. The strategy was represented in the form of a Computer Simulation usingproduction Systems andpropositionalmemory structures. The Simulation was found to be reasonably accurate in several respects. Especially interesting is thefact that relatively little general knowledge is needed by the model.