ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses prose comprehension from the reference point of working memory, paying special attention to the ways in which the various kinds of information needed for comprehension are combined in a memory system of limited capacity. A beginning model of working memory in prose comprehension was proposed by Walter Kintsch. This model was a partial implementation of the Kintsch and van Dijk comprehension theory, and was tested by comparing the model’s processing of a number of texts to empirical data obtained from subjects reading those texts. The frequency of recall of a proposition was predicted to be a function of the number of times that the proposition was processed in working memory. Each proposition received at least one cycle of processing when it was first read; others received additional cycles when they were held over from one cycle to the next by the leading edge strategy, or when they were retrieved from long-term memory and reinstated in working memory.
