Variation in mental models of text as a function of genre

"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?"

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Ohtsuka, Keisuke

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brewer, William F.

• Education, Educational Psychology
• Education, Reading
• Psychology, Experimental

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1990 Ohtsuka, Keisuke

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9026285
(UMI)AAI9026285

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23200