Uses W. Kintsch's Construction Integration model as a framework to explore the effects of preexisting attitudes on memory for texts. Shows that preexisting attitudes interacted with attitude texts over delay although not in a direct or expected fashion. Emphasizes the need to manipulate representational levels of attitude texts and to consider…

Proposes the subsuming theory criterion for experiments on common ground in mutual knowledge (i.e., the design must keep common information constant and only vary whether or not it is common). Demonstrates how doing so makes stronger claims. Illustrates how experiments can be designed to satisfy the criterion by evaluating some earlier studies…

Provides a technical analysis of the factors involved in the ability of latent semantic analysis to assess student knowledge (grading essays and matching students with appropriate instructional texts). Addresses the role of technical vocabulary, how long the student essays should be, and how one deals with the directionality of knowledge in the…

Suggests that even the youngest children use systematic strategies in ordering the elements of a story based on causal and temporal relationships. (FL)

Demonstrates that (1) in a theory of comprehension, global coherence must refer not just to the availability of a macrostructure, but also to its ease of construction; and (2) the topic-comment assignment at the sentence level can be an important influence on the reader's perception of the passage topic. (FL)

Describes the seven main components of QUEST, a cognitive model of question answering that attempts to simulate the answers adults produce when they answer different types of questions, both closed class and open class. Illustrates how the model could be applied to different types of knowledge structures, including causal networks, goal…

Tests the QUEST model of question answering in two experiments. Examines which components of QUEST could predict good answers to why-questions and how-questions in the context of short stories. Supports the validity of arc-search procedures and structural distance for both question categories. Finds only partial support for number of information…

Tests the QUEST model of question answering in naturalistic settings and in settings with complex pragmatic constraints: telephone surveys, business interactions, filmed interviews, and interviews on popular television programs. Finds that QUEST explains most of the answers in these contexts and virtually all of the answers that refer to the…

Supports the hypothesis that literal and metaphorical interpretations can result from similar contextual constraints. Finds that a metaphorical interpretation may be selected because a literal interpretation would have been inappropriate and that likewise a literal interpretation may be selected because a metaphorical interpretation would have…

Examines cohesion in the introductions to some scientific articles and compares the patterns to those from popularizations. Discusses a computational model of cohesion. Argues that readers of scientific articles must have a knowledge of lexical relations to see the implicit cohesion, whereas readers of popularizations must see the cohesive…

Finds that explicit anaphors only reactivated undergraduate students' target antecedents when they are both lexically and conceptually identical to a target antecedent; but as distance between an anaphor and its antecedent increased, even an explicit anaphor did not reactivate a target antecedent. Shows that distant antecedents were reactivated…

Discusses personal narratives of subjects with Alzheimer's disease and their spouses. Notes that solo narratives were gathered from patients and spouses separately, and then joint narratives were gathered. Compares patients' ability to provide settings in their solo narrative to their ability to supply information when prompted by spouses. Finds…

Explores whether speakers choose spatial perspectives to minimize effort. Discusses an experiment in which speakers describe locations on a display for addressees who shared their vantage point or had different views. Finds that same-viewpoint speakers spoke differently from speakers with offset views, who did not differ from each other reliably,…

Examined the conversations of preschool children as they completed two different tasks--a picture making task and a doll playing task. Concludes that the children's speech was primarily task-focused and that the rate of speech varied with task. (FL)

Describes a study to examine the changes that take place in the form and types of discussions about the past as two young, Spanish-speaking girls moved from elicited routines to spontaneous and novel conversations about their past experiences. (HTH)