ABSTRACT
The text-based view of inference stresses the notion that the inference process looks for meaningful relations between different propositions in the text. An alternative model-based view argues that a central purpose of inference is to synthesize an underlying model, which organizes and augments the surface structure fragments in the text. The inferences are the kind with which text-based theories have been concerned. Classically, in cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence, inference is thought of as filling in the missing connections between the surface structure fragments of the text by recourse to context and knowledge about the world. An alternative model-based view argues that a central purpose of inference is to synthesize an underlying model, which organizes and augments the surface structure fragments in the text. The theory states that text understanding proceeds by progressive refinement from an initial model to more and more refined models of the text.
