Cognitive mechanisms of language comprehension and memory for text

语言理解和文本记忆的认知机制

• 批准号: 9800-2007
• 负责人: Singer, Murray
• 金额: $ 2.31万
• 依托单位: University of Manitoba
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2007-01-01 至 2008-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=362844
• 关键词: Cognitive; mechanisms; language; comprehension; memory

Language comprehension is central to most realms of human activity, from conversation to enjoying a novel to deciphering a technical manual. This research combines human experimentation and computer simulation to inspect the mental processes that permit adults to understand messages in their first language and to represent message meaning.Comprehension is largely inferential -- having read that the glass fell to the concrete, people generally understand that the glass BROKE. One focus of the research is how people infer the complex goal structures that underlie text. A newspaper article might describe two states disputing their rights to an ocean island, or fictional characters jointly trying to achieve an objective. Full understanding depends on people's use of their knowledge to deduce the goal structure that interrelates the participants' actions.Remembering a message and answering questions about it are basic criteria of understanding. This research examines people's strategies for remembering messages, from trying to recall the precise details to recollecting the general sense. It also distinguishes these strategies from more automatic memory influences.SIGNIFICANCE: The research bears on issues important to Canada and beyond: What are the factors that distinguish teenagers strong and weak in reading comprehension? Do older adults miss the implications of ordinary messages? What properties of an advertisement contribute to it misleading a reader? Are there differences among the understanding of scientific text, fiction, and other text genres? The research also bears on fundamental scientific questions ranging from false memory (text inferences are often "falsely" recognized) to representing the situation described in a message.

语言理解是人类活动的大多数领域的核心，从对话到欣赏小说再到破译技术手册。这项研究结合了人体实验和计算机模拟，以检查允许成年人理解第一语言信息并表示信息含义的心理过程。理解在很大程度上是推理的--在阅读了玻璃掉到混凝土上之后，人们通常会理解玻璃碎了。研究的一个焦点是人们如何推断文本背后的复杂目标结构。一篇报纸文章可能描述两个国家对一个海洋岛屿的权利存在争议，或者虚构的人物共同努力实现一个目标。充分理解依赖于人们运用知识推断出与参与者的行动相关的目标结构，记住信息并回答相关问题是理解的基本标准。这项研究考察了人们记忆信息的策略，从试图回忆精确的细节到回忆一般意义。它也区分这些策略从更多的自动记忆influences.Significance：该研究承担的问题，重要的加拿大和超越：是什么因素，区分青少年强和弱的阅读理解？老年人是否错过了普通信息的含义？广告的哪些特性会导致它误导读者？对科学文本、小说和其他文本类型的理解是否存在差异？这项研究还涉及到一些基本的科学问题，从错误记忆（文本推断通常被“错误”识别）到代表信息中描述的情况。