Constructing Multidimensional Situation Models During Reading

Abstract

We examined which dimensions of the situation model (time, space, causation, motivation, and protagonist) are monitored by readers during narrative comprehension. Clause or sentence reading times were collected in three experiments and analyzed using multiple-regression analyses. Experiment 1 showed that readers monitored temporal, causal, goal-related, and protagonist-related continuity because discontinuities on these dimensions led to reliable increases in reading times. This was not the case for spatial continuity. Prior to reading, participants in Experiment 2 memorized a map of the building in which the events described in the narratives took place. There was a reliable effect of the spatial dimension, as well as of the other dimensions. In Experiment 3, participants read the narratives of Experiment 2 but without having first memorized the map. There was no effect of the spatial dimension, but the effects were again reliable for the other dimensions. Reading times increased as a function of the number of situational continuity breaks. The results are discussed in the context of the event-indexing model (Zwaan, Langston, & Graesser, 1995; Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998).