The representation of space in mental models derived from text

Langston, William; Kramer, Douglas C.; Glenberg, Arthur M.

doi:10.3758/bf03201137

Cited by 52 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…However, spatial information may be encoded to some degree even in these cases (Zwaan, Magliano, & Graesser, 1995). A similar point can be made for the Langston et al (1998) study. Although those texts focused on spatial information, there was no reason to consider how the objects were interacting with one another in that space.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Also, reading times are reliably affected by shifts along some situation components, such as time and causality, but not space (Zwaan, Magliano, & Graesser, 1995;Zwaan et aI., 1998). In a recent study, Langston et al (1998) failed to find an influence of spatial relations on the ability to notice that items mentioned in a text were spatially close. If people routinely monitored spatial information, then items that are spatially closer should be more available.…”

Section: Spatial Information and Situation Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Langston et al (1998) used information that focused entirely on spatial information. Still, spatial effects were not reliably observed.…”

Section: Spatial Information and Situation Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functionality and spatial relations in memory and language

Radvansky

Copeland

2000

Memory & Cognition

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We examined whether the functionality of spatial relations affects the construction and memory of information in situation models. A functional relationship involves the interaction of entities that is implied by either typical use or contextual demands. Previous research has shown that spatial relations are less likely to be encoded during comprehension unless there is extensive prior knowledge, explicit instructions to attend to spatial information, or a clear emphasis on spatial information. Ifthe construction of a situation model is guided by a need to understand the functional structure of a situation, then functional spatial relations should be more likely to be encoded. The results of our study showed that sentences with functional spatial relations were read faster and remembered better in both recall and recognition tests than sentences with nonfunctional spatial relations.A situation model is a mental representation of a specific situation (Johnson-Laird, 1983;van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983;. In text comprehension, situation models represent the described situation, not the text itself (Glenberg, Meyer, & Lindem, 1987). Thus, these representations serve as working models of the world. The organization of information in situation models not only is relevant for comprehension, but also has implications for the later memory ofthat information (Radvansky & Zacks, 1997). This is important because information that is comprehended is relatively valueless unless it can be usefully retained and retrieved over time. The present study assessed whether the functionality of relational information affects its encoding and memory in a situation model. The particular focus was on spatial relations because they are a situational component that is relatively easy to test in an objective fashion and because spatial information is one of the more heavily studied aspects of situation models. FunctionalityFor our purposes, the term functionality refers to the actual or likely interaction between two or more entities in a situation in which the state of one entity would be affected by a second entity in a meaningful way. There are several aspects of this description that warrant elaboration. First, there is the idea ofan interaction. There is some involvement of the entities with one another in a functional Portions of this research were presented at the 1999 meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago. We thank Laura Carlson-Radvansky and RolfZwaan for their helpful comments during the course of the project. and Kelly Crowhurst, Jackie Curiel. and Bill

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Spatial Information and Situation Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functionality and spatial relations in memory and language

Radvansky

Copeland

2000

Memory & Cognition

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“…Spatial situation models are usually postulated to include visuospatial representations (e.g., Fincher-Kiefer, 2001; Glenberg, 1997;Langston, Kramer, & Glenberg, 1998;Zwaan, 1999). Under certain circumstances, even a single sentence may initiate an elaborate situation model.…”

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confidence: 99%

Three Turtles in Danger: Spontaneous Construction of Causally Relevant Spatial Situation Models.

Jahn¹

2004

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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In 4 experiments, the author explored the spontaneous construction of spatial situation models during discourse comprehension by using the sentence-recognition paradigm of J. D. Bransford, J. R. Barclay, and J. J. Franks (1972). In Experiment 1, signaling causal relevance of spatial relations was a necessary precondition for replicating their original finding of spontaneously constructed spatial representations. Causal relevance was ensured in the subsequent experiments by a judgment task indirectly demanding the evaluation of described spatial relations with regard to causal relevance. Participants spontaneously constructed spatial situation models of text presented auditorily or visually. Effects of spontaneous construction were more reliable when encoding was easier. The results suggest a revised interpretation of J. D. Bransford et al.'s study and corroborate recent evidence showing that relevant spatial information in texts is reliably represented.

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“…Interestingly, studies measuring reaction times have supported the assumption that during comprehension people construct models of reality (Glenberg, Meyer, & Lindem, 1987;Langston, Kramer, & Glenberg, 1998). Text comprehension is faster when the new information is related to the previous information because it can be integrated or updated in the same mental model without requiring the constructionof a new model (Garnham, Traxler, Oakhill, & Gernsbacher, 1996;Glenberg, 1997).…”

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confidence: 92%

Priming in deduction: A spatial arrangement task

Moreno-Ríos

García-Madruga

2002

Memory & Cognition

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The mental model theory assumes that people reason by manipulating mental representations of states of the world, called "mental models." In the present study we used a new deduction task based on diagrammatic premises. We show that a premise can prime other premises that induce similar mental models in a way analogous to the case of words with related meanings, which can prime one another. We present three experiments. In Experiment 1 we used an evaluation task. In Experiment 2, a construction task was used. The priming effect was obtained in both cases. In a third experiment we show that the priming effect was still present when participants were instructed to ignore a prime displayed before the premises. In all three experiments we compared determinate and indeterminate problems and found faster responses in the former.

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The representation of space in mental models derived from text

Cited by 52 publications

References 32 publications

Functionality and spatial relations in memory and language

Functionality and spatial relations in memory and language

Three Turtles in Danger: Spontaneous Construction of Causally Relevant Spatial Situation Models.

Priming in deduction: A spatial arrangement task

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