ABSTRACT
To what extent are the processes that underlie discourse comprehension open to inspection during their operation? Certainly nothing is revealed when we try to follow the process whereby marks on a page are translated into meaning. Such attempts can even interfere with comprehension. Intuition and careful reflection reveal little as well, as is attested to by the existence of a vast research literature describing scientific attempts to uncover the nature of comprehension processes. This might suggest that discourse comprehension is a completely automatic process, with no conscious control or awareness. The extent to which this is the case is the topic of this chapter.
