Text Comprehension and Discourse Processing

Abstract How do you comprehend language? What factors will influence your immediate understanding of what you hear or read? Will you remember the information in two weeks? Will you be able to use the information for another purpose? This chapter concerns all of these questions—more specifically it reviews what we know about comprehension, what we hope to know in the future, how we can improve or support comprehension, and how psychologists have attempted to model comprehension processes. Research has partially unraveled the complexity of comprehension processes; comprehension performance ultimately is determined by multiple factors internal and external to the individual. Internal variables range from the well‐studied influence of memory (especially short‐ and long‐term working memory) on comprehension to the more uncertain impact of a comprehender's goals and emotions. External variables also are diverse, ranging from the format or content of a printed text to contributions of other participants in conversation. Research on these factors has uncovered a variety of ways to support and improve comprehension; some aspects of comprehension even have been modeled with success. Although this chapter discusses the considerable knowledge that comprehension research has generated, it also discusses future challenges to developing a complete model of comprehension.