The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: A construction-integration model.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses data concerning the time course of word identification in a discourse context. A simulation of arithmetic word-problem understanding provides a plausible account for some well-known phenomena. The current theories use representations with several mutually constraining layers. There is typically a linguistic level of representation, conceptual levels to represent both the local and global meaning and structure of a text, and a level at which the text itself has lost its individuality and its information content. Knowledge provides part of the context within which a discourse interpreted. The integration phase is the price the model pays for the necessary flexibility in the construction process.