The influence of language proficiency and comprehension skill on situation‐model construction

1996 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf A. Zwaan ◽  
Carol M. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Situation Model ◽  
Model Construction ◽  
Comprehension Skill

How Age, Linguistic Status, and the Nature of the Auditory Scene Alter the Manner in Which Listening Comprehension Is Achieved in Multitalker Conversations

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 1570-1591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meital Avivi-Reich ◽  
Agnes Jakubczyk ◽  
Meredyth Daneman ◽  
Bruce A. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Spatial Separation ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Comprehension Skill ◽  
Auditory Scene

Purpose We investigated how age and linguistic status affected listeners' ability to follow and comprehend 3-talker conversations, and the extent to which individual differences in language proficiency predict speech comprehension under difficult listening conditions. Method Younger and older L1s as well as young L2s listened to 3-talker conversations, with or without spatial separation between talkers, in either quiet or against moderate or high 12-talker babble background, and were asked to answer questions regarding their contents. Results After compensating for individual differences in speech recognition, no significant differences in conversation comprehension were found among the groups. As expected, conversation comprehension decreased as babble level increased. Individual differences in reading comprehension skill contributed positively to performance in younger EL1s and in young EL2s to a lesser degree but not in older EL1s. Vocabulary knowledge was significantly and positively related to performance only at the intermediate babble level. Conclusion The results indicate that the manner in which spoken language comprehension is achieved is modulated by the listeners' age and linguistic status.

Evaluating missing-letter effects and comprehension in proficient and nonproficient languages

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-301
Author(s):  
JOANNA C. BOVEE ◽  
GARY E. RANEY
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Situation Model ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Question Type ◽  
Letter Detection ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Normal Reading ◽  
Situational Model

ABSTRACTThis study was conducted to examine whether word recognition and comprehension processes change as a function of language proficiency. Participants were highly proficient in English but at a low proficiency level in Spanish. The participants read texts presented in English and Spanish while reading normally or while performing a letter-detection task and then answered comprehension questions that tested their mental representations of the surface form, text base, and situational model. Overall letter-detection error rates were lower when texts were presented in the nonproficient Spanish language. There was a typical missing-letter effect in English, such that more detection errors were made on function than content words. In Spanish, the missing-letter effect was reversed, with more errors on content than function words. Overall comprehension was substantially better when reading English passages than Spanish passages and best at the situation model level. For the English passages, comprehension was reduced during letter detection compared to normal reading. For the Spanish passages, comprehension was similar for letter detection and normal reading. Question type did not systematically vary as a function of language proficiency or task type. These findings highlight differences in cognitive processes during reading as a function of language proficiency and enhance our understanding of the letter-detection task itself.

scholarly journals Children’s surface, textbase, and situation model representations of written and illustrated written narrative text

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedikt T. Seger ◽  
Wienke Wannagat ◽  
Gerhild Nieding
Keyword(s):  
Situation Model ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Narrative Text ◽  
Model Construction ◽  
Tripartite Model ◽  
Text Representation ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Sentence Recognition

AbstractAccording to the tripartite model of text representation (van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983), readers form representations of the text surface and textbase, and construct a situation model. In this study, an experiment was conducted to investigate whether these levels of representation would be affected by adding illustrations to narrative text and whether the order of text and illustrations would make a difference. Students aged between 7 and 13 years (N = 146) read 12 narrative texts, 4 of them with illustrations presented before their corresponding sentences, 4 with illustrations presented after, and 4 without any illustration. A sentence recognition task was used to assess the accuracy for text surface, textbase, and situation model. For the text surface and situation model, neither the presence of illustrations nor the order of text and illustrations influenced accuracy. However, the textbase was negatively affected by illustrations when they followed their corresponding sentences. We suggest that illustrations can initiate model inspection after situation model construction (Schnotz, 2014), a process that can make substantial changes to the textbase representation.

Text Comprehension

2018 ◽  
pp. 196-216
Author(s):  
Evelyn C. Ferstl
Keyword(s):  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Situation Model ◽  
Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Functional Neuroanatomy ◽  
Temporal Lobes ◽  
Comprehension Skill ◽  
Cognitive Studies ◽  
Medial Cortex ◽  
Text Features ◽  
Educational Applications

Text comprehension research analyzes processes needed for integrating sentences or utterances into a coherent discourse representation. This chapter introduces the linguistic concepts cohesion, coherence, and situation model and summarizes cognitive theories of text comprehension. The second section provides a brief overview of the most lively current research domains, divided into three parts: (a) Cognitive studies target the relationship between memory and comprehension, the integration of information across multiple texts, and mind wandering during reading. (b) Educational applications include automated systems for the analysis of text features and structures, as well as the design and testing of interventions for improving comprehension skill in readers. (c) Neuroimaging studies show that the anterior temporal lobes, the fronto-medial cortex, and the posterior cingulate cortex are as crucial for the functional neuroanatomy of text comprehension. The chapter concludes with methodological advances that will influence text comprehension research and provides an outlook to future perspectives.

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