Toward a model of text comprehension and production.

Abstract

The semantic structure of texts can be described both at the local microlevel and at a more global macrolevel. A model for text comprehension based on this notion accounts for the formation of a coherent semantic text base in terms of a cyclical process constrained by limitations of working memory. Furthermore, the model includes macro-operators, whose purpose is to reduce the information in a text base to its gist, that is, the theoretical macrostructure. These opera-tions are under the control of a schema, which is a theoretical formulation of the comprehender's goals. The macroprocesses are predictable only when the control schema can be made explicit. On the production side, the model is con-cerned with the generation of recall and summarization protocols. This process is partly reproductive and partly constructive, involving the inverse operation of the macro-operators. The model is applied to a paragraph from a psycho-logical research report, and methods for the empirical testing of the model are developed. The main goal of this article is to describe the system of mental operations that underlie the processes occurring in text comprehension and in the production of recall and summariza-tion protocols. A processing model will be outlined that specifies three sets of operations. First, the meaning elements of a text become

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