You are here

role of protagonist perspective in text comprehension

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
1988
Summary:
The present study examined two models of text comprehension. The first was the propositional representation proposed by Kintsch and van Dijk (1978), in which coherence is determined by coreference and consistency. The second model was a mental model which incorporates readers' world knowledge, goals, and plans in the comprehension of text. In Experiment 1, subjects were told to assume the protagonist perspective while reading a series of short passages. Results showed that when instructed to do so, subjects formed an image that includes information regarding protagonist location. When this location information was violated, a slowdown in reading time of a target sentence occurred. Experiment 2 showed that when subjects are not instructed to assume the protagonist perspective, they apparently are not aware of inconsistencies in location information.
Title: The role of protagonist perspective in text comprehension.
88 views
25 downloads
Name(s): Baldwin, Stella Bocholis.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
O'Brien, Edward J., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1988
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 55 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: The present study examined two models of text comprehension. The first was the propositional representation proposed by Kintsch and van Dijk (1978), in which coherence is determined by coreference and consistency. The second model was a mental model which incorporates readers' world knowledge, goals, and plans in the comprehension of text. In Experiment 1, subjects were told to assume the protagonist perspective while reading a series of short passages. Results showed that when instructed to do so, subjects formed an image that includes information regarding protagonist location. When this location information was violated, a slowdown in reading time of a target sentence occurred. Experiment 2 showed that when subjects are not instructed to assume the protagonist perspective, they apparently are not aware of inconsistencies in location information.
Identifier: 14457 (digitool), FADT14457 (IID), fau:11256 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1988.
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Subject(s): Reading comprehension
Reading, Psychology of
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14457
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.