{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23200"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23200","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Variation in mental models of text as a function of genre","abstract":"\"This dissertation addresses the question \"\"Does text genre affect the characteristics of mental representations built from text?\"\" As early as the turn of last century writing teachers used text genre to classify textual styles in rhetoric textbooks. Recently researchers have suggested that the characteristics of mental models formed from one text genre would be different from the mental models formed from another genre (Brewer, 1980; Johnson-Laird, 1983). Readers of survey texts and route texts were faster and more accurate in verifying spatial information that was presented in the same form as the initial text (Perrig & Kintsch, 1985). The results suggest that the characteristics of mental models built from these two texts were different. Readers use different information to resolve ambiguity in order to determine ambiguous pronoun referents when narrative texts and descriptive texts were compared (Morrow, 1985, 1986). If the knowledge about text genre affects the process of mental model construction, does it also affect the characteristics of the mental model built from various genres?\"","abstract_html":""This dissertation addresses the question ""Does text genre affect the characteristics of mental representations built from text?"" As early as the turn of last century writing teachers used text genre to classify textual styles in rhetoric textbooks. Recently researchers have suggested that the characteristics of mental models formed from one text genre would be different from the mental models formed from another genre (Brewer, 1980; Johnson-Laird, 1983). Readers of survey texts and route texts were faster and more accurate in verifying spatial information that was presented in the same form as the initial text (Perrig & Kintsch, 1985). The results suggest that the characteristics of mental models built from these two texts were different. Readers use different information to resolve ambiguity in order to determine ambiguous pronoun referents when narrative texts and descriptive texts were compared (Morrow, 1985, 1986). If the knowledge about text genre affects the process of mental model construction, does it also affect the characteristics of the mental model built from various genres?"","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ohtsuka, Keisuke"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Education","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Brewer, William F."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-07T14:05:42Z","date_published":"2011-05-07T14:05:42Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:21Z","subjects":["Education, Educational Psychology","Education, Reading","Psychology, Experimental"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Copyright 1990 Ohtsuka, Keisuke"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9026285","(UMI)AAI9026285"],"render_values":[{"text":"AAI9026285","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"(UMI)AAI9026285","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/23200","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Brewer, William F."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ohtsuka, Keisuke"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2011-05-07T14:05:42Z","10000-01-01","1990"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Education"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Education, Educational Psychology","Education, Reading","Psychology, Experimental"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 1990 Ohtsuka, Keisuke"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9026285","(UMI)AAI9026285","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/23200"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["\"This dissertation addresses the question \"\"Does text genre affect the characteristics of mental representations built from text?\"\" As early as the turn of last century writing teachers used text genre to classify textual styles in rhetoric textbooks. Recently researchers have suggested that the characteristics of mental models formed from one text genre would be different from the mental models formed from another genre (Brewer, 1980; Johnson-Laird, 1983). Readers of survey texts and route texts were faster and more accurate in verifying spatial information that was presented in the same form as the initial text (Perrig & Kintsch, 1985). The results suggest that the characteristics of mental models built from these two texts were different. Readers use different information to resolve ambiguity in order to determine ambiguous pronoun referents when narrative texts and descriptive texts were compared (Morrow, 1985, 1986). If the knowledge about text genre affects the process of mental model construction, does it also affect the characteristics of the mental model built from various genres?\"","In this dissertation, the characteristics of mental models built from three genres, descriptive, procedural, and narrative texts, which contain the same underlying spatial information, were examined by asking three types of inference questions. One hundred twenty-two undergraduate students read one of the three genres on a computer display and later answered inference questions about spatial information. Accuracy scores and response time data were examined. The results suggest that the mental model built from the Descriptive text differs from the models built from the other two genres and shows more two-dimensional characteristics. The readers were able to transform the mental model constructed from one genre of text to other forms of mental models in order to answer different types of inference questions. Therefore, the mental models built from text can be conceptualized as flexible representations that can be manipulated by readers rather than static, rigid structures that simply hold the textual information for retrieval.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T14:05:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9026285.pdf: 7021451 bytes, checksum: d914be5ef7346c0b8ca444d1e87b1aac (MD5) Previous issue date: 1990","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T15:02:52Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:29:55-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Variation in mental models of text as a function of genre"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Brewer, William F."],"dc:creator":["Ohtsuka, Keisuke"],"dc:date":["2011-05-07T14:05:42Z","10000-01-01","1990"],"dc:description":["\"This dissertation addresses the question \"\"Does text genre affect the characteristics of mental representations built from text?\"\" As early as the turn of last century writing teachers used text genre to classify textual styles in rhetoric textbooks. Recently researchers have suggested that the characteristics of mental models formed from one text genre would be different from the mental models formed from another genre (Brewer, 1980; Johnson-Laird, 1983). Readers of survey texts and route texts were faster and more accurate in verifying spatial information that was presented in the same form as the initial text (Perrig & Kintsch, 1985). The results suggest that the characteristics of mental models built from these two texts were different. Readers use different information to resolve ambiguity in order to determine ambiguous pronoun referents when narrative texts and descriptive texts were compared (Morrow, 1985, 1986). If the knowledge about text genre affects the process of mental model construction, does it also affect the characteristics of the mental model built from various genres?\"","In this dissertation, the characteristics of mental models built from three genres, descriptive, procedural, and narrative texts, which contain the same underlying spatial information, were examined by asking three types of inference questions. One hundred twenty-two undergraduate students read one of the three genres on a computer display and later answered inference questions about spatial information. Accuracy scores and response time data were examined. The results suggest that the mental model built from the Descriptive text differs from the models built from the other two genres and shows more two-dimensional characteristics. The readers were able to transform the mental model constructed from one genre of text to other forms of mental models in order to answer different types of inference questions. Therefore, the mental models built from text can be conceptualized as flexible representations that can be manipulated by readers rather than static, rigid structures that simply hold the textual information for retrieval.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T14:05:42Z (GMT). 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