Investigated the effects of language proficiency
and comprehension skill on situation-model construction during narrative
comprehension in two studies involving 12 native English speaking college
students, categorized as either high or low language comprehenders and
enrolled in a 2nd year French class. In Study 1, subjects were asked to
think aloud during a comprehension of two English and two French fables.
In Study 2, subjects completed a verb-clustering task based upon their
memory of the story. Results show high skilled subjects generated more
explanatory inferences and stronger situation models then less skilled
comprehenders; therefore, skilled comprehenders have more highly integrated
situation models in long term memory than less skilled comprehenders. These
situation models not only incorporate causal and motivational connections
between the events, but also temporal, spatial, and protagonist-related
connections.
Situation model papers page
Situation model research group page