Daniel Morrow

Updating situation models during narrative comprehension

Abstract The present study examines whether readers of narratives focus on information relevant to the protagonists perspective even when this information is implied rather than explicitly stated in the narrative. It also examines whether the protagonists perspective is associated with this characters mental as well as physical location. We investigated these issues by conducting experiments in which subjects memorized a building layout and then read narratives that described a protagonist moving through the building while following a plan. Accessibility of object locations during reading was probed by interrupting the narrative and presenting the names of two objects from the building. Subjects indicated whether the objects were from the same room or from different rooms of the building. Experiment 1 investigated accessibility immediately after sentences that described the character moving from one room into another via a known but unmentioned path room. Readers answered questions about objects at the protagonists current location (the goal room) more quickly than questions about objects in other rooms. Importantly, objects in the unmentioned path room were more accessible than those in mentioned but less relevant rooms. This finding shows that readers focus on information that is relevant to the protagonist by implication even if it is not mentioned. Experiments 2 and 3 show that the inferencing found in the first experiment depended more on the situational relevance of the implicit information than on other properties of the narratives or on the probe task. Experiment 2 also showed that the protagonists location was less accessible than another location that the protagonist was thinking about. Thus, readers focused on the protagonists “mental location” more than the physical location. Experiment 3 showed that the location room remained accessible so long as it was relevant to the protagonists actions. Thus, the dynamics of accessibility during comprehension reflects the relevance of information to the current actions of the protagonist.

Prominent characters and events organize narrative understanding

Abstract Readers understand a narrative by constructing a representation from a sequence of sentences. They must identify which parts of the narrative are most prominent in order to assign the appropriate referents to referring expressions and construct a coherent representation. The present experiments demonstrate that properties of the characters and events expressed by narratives are often more important for guiding referent assignment than the order in which these parts of narratives are mentioned. In particular, in congruent narratives, where the protagonist (i.e., the most important character of the narrative) participates in a foreground event (i.e., part of the narrative plot) and the nonprotagonist participates in a background event, readers chose the protagonist as referent for a subsequent pronoun, regardless of the order of mention of the events the two characters participated in. However, in incongruent narratives, where the protagonist participates in the background event and the nonprotagonist in the foreground event, readers were less confident and relied on the order of mention and status of events, choosing the nonprotagonist in a last mentioned foreground event and favoring neither character when the foreground event with nonprotagonist was mentioned first. When narratives more sharply delineated foregrounded from backgrounded events, readers were less confused and chose characters from foregrounded events. When narratives contained pronouns that referred to places rather than characters, readers chose referents from the last mentioned place regardless of the kind of character or event it was associated with. The results suggest that readers combine information about the characters, events, and places that narratives express with information about their order of mention in order to assign referents and that this process is part of the process of constructing a model that represents the world described by the narrative.

Interpreting words in spatial descriptions

Abstract A word may have the identical conventional meaning in different descriptions and yet be taken as denoting very different things. The proposal we tested is that the denotation of such a word is what the addressee believes it must be in order to contribute to the model of the situation that the speaker intended the addressee to create. We tested this proposal on the verb approach in descriptions schematised by “Figure F is just approaching landmark L for reason R.” The distance from F to L was judged to be larger, all else being equal, the larger the landmark, the larger the figure, the faster the figure was moving, and the farther away the figure could be and still fulfil his or her purpose. We argued that these and other results about word interpretation are best accounted for by listeners creating the intended situation models.

Nonroutine transactions in controller‐pilot communication

People use a variety of strategies and devices to make themselves understood, partly in response to different communication constraints. The present study examined how communication during routine Air Traffic Control operations is shaped by accuracy and efficiency constraints. Controllers and pilots use a combination of English and special conventions that have developed in response to these constraints. One convention is the collaborative scheme, in which the speaker initiates a transaction, presents new information, and collaborates with the addressee to accept the information as mutually understood and appropriate (Clark & Schaefer, 1987). We examined how this scheme is used to balance the demands of accuracy and efficiency during routine pilot‐controller communication. This scheme also organizes nonroutine communication, where pilots and controllers interrupt routine communication in order to resolve communication problems. Findings suggest that several communication problems can be traced to nonstand...

Spatial models, prepositions, and verb‐aspect markers

This study explored the importance of grammatical morphemes for constructing spatially organized situation models. In particular, it examined how readers infer location in spatial models from prepositions and verb‐aspect markers. Experiment 1 found that when these morphemes combine to describe the situation in progress (John was walking through the kitchen toward the bedroom), readers locate the moving entity, or figure, on the path with the specific location specified by the path or source preposition (e.g., walking out of vs. walking through). When the morphemes describe the situation as completed (John walked through the kitchen into the bedroom), readers locate the figure at or inside the goal. Simple past tense sentences with walked to describe location less precisely than do other constructions, with readers locating the figure on the path or at the goal (Experiment 1). However, walked to sentences clearly describe goal locations when they are changed from simple past to present perfect tense (has w...

Grammatical morphemes and conceptual structure in discourse processing

The present paper analyzes how the semantic and pragmatic functions of closed class categories, or grammatical morphemes (i.e., inflections and function words), organize discourse processing. Grammatical morphemes tend to express a small set of conceptual distinctions that organize a wide range of objects and relations, usually expressed by content or open class words (i.e., nouns and verbs), into situations anchored to a discourse context. Therefore, grammatical morphemes and content words cooperate in guiding the construction of a situation model during discourse comprehension by specifying complementary aspects of described situations. The paper reviews and extends analytical and empirical evidence for this grammatical-conceptual correspondence, and suggests that the correspondence developed in response to the cognitive demands of discourse processing. Thus the distinction between open and closed linguistic categories is interpreted in terms of a fundamental correspondence between conceptual and linguistic structure that helps organize discourse processing.

Influence of aging and practice on piloting tasks

We examined how pilot age influences radio communication and routine flying tasks during simulated flight, and if practice reduces age differences in these tasks. The communication task involved reading back and executing messages with four commands (heading, altitude, communication frequency, transponder code). Routine flying tasks included takeoff, visual approach, and landing. Fifteen older (X = 38.4 years) and 16 younger (X = 26.1 years) private-license pilots flew 12 flights involving these tasks. Age differences were found in the communication task; older pilots read back and executed controller messages less accurately. However, age differences were not significant for any of the routine flying tasks except the approach. Age differences in communication performance were not reduced by practice, with older and young pilots improving at roughly the same rate across flights. These results are consistent with previous research showing age-related declines in working memory capacity. Capacity declines would produce greater age differences on communication than on routine flying tasks because the communication tasks imposed a greater load on working memory.

Places as referents in discourse

Abstract The present study investigated how the prominence of places in discourse is influenced by their role in the described situations and their order of mention in the text. Experiment 1 compared descriptions, where places have a central role as theme, with narratives, where thematic places are less central because they serve as setting for characters and events. Readers chose places as referent for an ambiguous pronoun. For descriptions, they tended to choose thematic places, but for narratives they tended to choose recently mentioned places. This suggests that when places are central to discourse, their prominence is determined by their role in the described situations; otherwise it is determined by order of mention. Experiment 2 provides further evidence that places are noncentral to narratives because cause of their setting function. Thus, readers try to choose as referents entities that are central to the described situations. They resort to order of mention only when situational cues are absent or conflicting.

Analysis of routine pilot-controller communication

Although pilot-controller communication is central to aviation safety, this area of aviation human factors has not been extensively researched. Most research has focused on what kinds of communication problems occur. A more complete picture of communication problems requires understanding how communication usually works in routine operations. A sample of routine pilot-controller communication in the TRACON environment is described. After describing several dimensions of routine communication, three kinds of communication problems are treated: inaccuracies such as incorrect readbacks, procedural deviations such as missing callsigns and readbacks, and nonroutine transactions where pilot and controller must deal with misunderstandings or other communication problems. Preliminary results suggest these problems are not frequent events in daily operations. However, analysis of the problems that do occur suggest some factors that may cause them.

Message Repetition Improves Older and Younger Adult Memory for Appointment Information: Implications for Automated Telephone Messaging

Automated telephone messaging systems have dramatically expanded communication about health services. However, few studies have investigated the design of these messages. Our earlier research examined the impact of organization and length on age differences in memory for appointment messages delivered by an automated telephone messaging system. The present study investigated if message repetition (0, 1, 2 repetitions) improved older (mean age=71) and younger (mean age=19) adult memory for appointment messages that varied in length. One message repetition reduced age differences for answering questions about the messages, but did not reduce age differences for a free recall measure, suggesting that older adults only took differential advantage of increased presentation time when they were also provided additional retrieval support. Younger but not older participants also benefitted from a second repetition of the messages. Younger adults may better monitor ongoing comprehension and gauge what additional processing is needed to take advantage of repeated presentations. The present findings show that older as well as younger adults benefit from at least one repetition of appointment messages delivered by an automated message system, suggesting that repetition can be an important feature of automated telephone messaging systems for both older and younger clients.