The Process of Constructing Mental Representations: Investigating the Units of Inferences Activated in Japanese EFL Reading

本研究旨在确定日本英语学习者在阅读中激活的推理单元，并考察他们通过将推理整合到心理表征中来构建连贯情景模型的过程。三个实验的结果表明，日本英语学习者可以进行桥接推理和预测推理，并将其与文本基础理解联系起来。此外，建构心理表征的过程还包括利用这些推论将先前的情境模型修正为新的情境模型。证据还证明了学习者因素（如熟练程度、高水平和低水平阅读技能）和文本因素（如闪回和因果关系）对阅读过程的影响。这些发现表明，在课堂教学中，教师在构建对文本的连贯理解时，应仔细考虑英语学习者的阅读过程。

The present study aimed to identify the units of inferences activated by Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in reading, and to examine the process by which they constructed coherent situation models through integrating inferences into their mental representations. The results of three experiments showed that Japanese EFL learners made bridging and predictive inferences and associated them with textbase understandings. Moreover, the process of constructing mental representations involved revising prior situation models into new ones by using these inferences. Evidence also demonstrated the effects of learner factors (e.g., proficiency, and higher-level and lower-level reading skills) and text factors (e.g., flashback and causal relatedness) on the course of reading processes. These findings suggest that teachers should carefully take into account EFL learners’ reading processes whenconstructing coherent understandings of texts in a classroom instruction.