Situationsmodelle und das Verstehen von Erzähltexten: Befunde und Probleme

Abstract

Recent theories of text comprehension assume that readers build a representation of the situation described by a text in additon to a representation of the text itself. This level of representation, the situation model, is considered tantamount to deep comprehension of the text. This paper gives an overview of the empirical results concerning the role of situation models in text comprehension. The description is guided by a number of questions, namely, what information is represented in situation models, and what the preconditions for building a situation model are. Moreover, effects of situation models on processes involved in text comprehension as well as the representational format of situation models are discussed. Finally, problems and open questions regarding research on situation models are mentioned, and directions for further research are suggested.