Comprehension
Courtney Anderegg · The International Encyclopedia of Media Psychology · 2020
Comprehension involves the combination of new and existing information to create a coherent mental representation of knowledge. This mental representation is then stored in memory and used as a reference when new information is encountered. Closely connected to schemas, mental models, and situation models, comprehension contributes to how information can be received, understood, and stored for later use by an individual. The literature focuses on several models that attempt to explain how information presented in a message contributes to comprehension. The landscape model describes how the activation of concepts throughout a message aids in the process of understanding message content. The event‐indexing model examines how the concepts described in a message can be categorized into five dimensions—time, space, protagonist, causality, and intentionality—and used to update or create situation models of the presented information. Both of these models contribute to our understanding of the complex process of comprehending information and can be relied upon in creating effective media messages.