Perspective-driven text comprehension

: Kaakinen JK, Hyona J

Publisher: JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD

: 2008

: Applied Cognitive Psychology

: APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

: APPL COGNITIVE PSYCH

: 22

: 3

: 319

: 334

: 16

: 0888-4080

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1412

The present article reports results of an eye-tracking experiment, which examines whether the perspective-driven text Comprehension framework applies to comprehension of narrative text. Sixty-four participants were instructed to adopt either a burglar's or an interior designer's perspective. A pilot test showed that readers have more overlapping prior knowledge with the burglar-relevant than with the interior designer-relevant information of the experimental text. Participants read either a transparent text version where the (ir)relevance of text segments to the perspective was made apparent, or an opaque text version where no direct mention of the perspective was made. After reading participants wrote a free recall of the text. The results showed that perspective-related prior knowledge modulates the perspective effects observed in on-line text processing and that signalling of (ir)relevance helps in encoding relevant information to memory. It is concluded that the proposed framework generalizes to the on-line comprehension of narrative texts. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.