CAUSAL THINKING IN DISCOURSE COMPREHENSION

本文提出了叙事语篇理解的一般模式 其中所述理解者构建故事的记忆表示 基于（1）有意义的事件（状态或动作），以及（2）因果关系 事件之间的关系。 从这个表示中，一个因果链， 代表叙事中的重要事件，是派生出来的。 假设 故事的连贯性取决于当地的连贯性或因果关系 连接是故事中的事件，一些影响， 因果网络和因果链的假设进行了测试，对现有的 关于故事理解和回忆的数据。 一项分析在四项上完成 Stein和Glenn（1979）在10岁儿童身上使用的故事表明， 该模型解释了（1）在不同的故事中回忆事件， 凝聚力，（2）事件的差异回忆，如设置，启动 事件、目标等，(3)即时和延迟回忆;（4）重要性 判断，（5）为什么问题的答案。 要求提供支助， 分析了现有的文献，以测试的几个影响， 因果分析 此外，使用条件概率的实验 分析，相关性评级，重建和启动程序是 提出了测试网络和因果链模型的假设。 关于使用系统提问评估或促进 理解以及验证因果分析提出了对 儿童和成人。 这项研究旨在发现因果关系是如何 知识，心理社会和物理世界都发挥着重要作用， 在理解和记忆事件和话语中的作用。 因此它 试图为过去十年的各种发现提供一个解释 对故事的理解。 此外，它还介绍了一种不同的分析， 语言心理学的意义，并提供了一种方法， 叙事测试的可读性和连贯性可以被分析， 量化。 其实际应用领域包括文本分析、 沟通、写作和理解。

A general model of comprehension for narrative discourse is proposed wherein the comprehender constructs a memory representation of a story based upon (1) meaningful events (states or actions), and (2) causal relations between the events. From this representation, a causal chain, representing the important events in the narrative, is derived. Assuming that story coherence depends upon how locally cohesive or causally connected are the events in the story, a number of implications of the causal network and causal chain assumptions are tested against existing data on story comprehension and recall. One analysis completed on four stories used by Stein and Glenn (1979) on 10-year-old children shows that the model accounts for (1) recall of events across stories that differ in cohesion, (2) differential recall of events such as settings, initiating events, goals, etc., (3) immediate and delayed recall, (4) importance judgments, and (5) answers to Why questions. Support is requested to analyzed existing literature in order to test several implications of the causal analysis. In addition, experiments using conditional probability analysis, relatedness ratings, reconstruction, and priming procedures are proposed which test the network and causal chain assumptions of the model. Other studies on the use of systematic questioning to assess or to promote comprehension as well as to validate the causal analysis are proposed on children and adults. This research is aimed at discovering how causal knowledge, both of the psychological-social and physical worlds plays a role in understanding and remembering events and discourse. As such, it seeks to provide an account for a variety of findings over the past decade on story understanding. Further, it introduces a different analysis of meaning into the psychology of language and provides a method by which readability and coherence of narrative tests can be analyzed and quantified. The practical applications lie in the areas of text analysis, communication, writing, and comprehension.