Arthur M. Glenberg (1992) When Minimalism is not Enough:mental Models in Reading
. Psycoloquy: 3(64) Reading Inference 1 (2)
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Psycoloquy 3(64): When Minimalism is not Enough:mental Models in Reading
WHEN MINIMALISM IS NOT ENOUGH:MENTAL MODELS IN READING
COMPREHENSION
Target Article on Reading-Inference-2
Arthur M. Glenberg
Department of Psychology
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI 53706
Shashi Mathew
Department of Psychology
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
glenberg@macc.wisc.edu
mathew@isr.Harvard.edu
Abstract
McKoon and Ratcliff (1992) contrast a minimalist
theory of reading with a constructionist or mental-model theory
"that readers automatically construct a full representation of the
real-life situation described by a text." We take issue with three
aspects of McKoon and Ratcliff's arguments. First, the contrast
between the minimalist and the mental-model account is unwarranted:
The minimalist account applies to automatic inferences, whereas
mental models are not often constructed automatically. Second,
mental models are not full representations of real-life situations.
Last, we report the results of two experiments demonstrating
problems with their "salience" account of phenomena previously
attributed to mental models.
Keywords
reading comprehension, mental models, inferences,
minimalism, salience
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