Mental models and inference in reading comprehension
Saša Vidaković · 2020
Reading is a complex cognitive process, which involves decoding symbols and recognizing words, leading to the development of comprehension. According to Schema Theory, comprehending a text is an interactive process between the reader's background knowledge and the text. WM, which has a limited capacity store for briefly retaining information while performing mental operations, is extremely important in the process of reading and recalling. The construction of a coherent mental model is the goal of comprehension but it is limited by WM capacity. Constructing a mental model using previously learned or schematic knowledge requires the reader to make inferences about situations in the text. This thesis deals with the impact of mental models on readers' recall of a text and its focus is primarily to prove that all readers make a number of incorrect inferences besides the correct ones, when reading and recalling the text. The second purpose of the thesis is to examine the differences in Working Memory capacity between three groups of participants – native speakers of English, native speakers of Croatian without a degree in English, and native speakers of Croatian who either have a degree in English or are students of English. The research was conducted online and it involved a total of 120 participants. The results show that all readers make incorrect inferences beside the correct ones when reading and recalling a text. Furthermore, they reveal that bilinguals do not have any advantages or disadvantages, i.e. higher or lower WM capacity when compared to monolinguals.