Processing and memory of information presented in narrative or expository texts.

Background: Previous research suggests that narrative and expository texts differ in the extent to which they prompt students to integrate to-be-learned content with relevant prior knowledge during comprehension.

Aims: We expand on previous research by examining on-line processing and representation in memory of to-be-learned content that is embedded in narrative or expository texts. We are particularly interested in how differences in the use of relevant prior knowledge leads to differences in terms of levels of discourse representation (textbase vs.

Learning and memory of factual content from narrative and expository text.

Background: Research on the presentation of information in narrative versus expository text genres is inconclusive with respect to the question of which is more beneficial for student learning.

Aims: We examine the effect of presenting factual content in either narrative or expository genres on student learning. We also consider relevant prior knowledge and working memory capacity (WMC) as potential mediating variables.

Memory for narrative and expository text: independent influences of semantic associations and text organization.

The author examined memory for text in terms of the independent influences of semantic knowledge associations and text organization. Semantic associations were operationalized as the semantic relatedness between individual text concepts and the text as a whole and assessed with latent semantic analysis. The author assessed text organization by simulating comprehension with the construction integration model.

Use of latent semantic analysis for predicting psychological phenomena: two issues and proposed solutions.

Latent semantic analysis (LSA) is a computational model of human knowledge representation that approximates semantic relatedness judgments. Two issues are discussed that researchers must attend to when evaluating the utility of LSA for predicting psychological phenomena. First, the role of semantic relatedness in the psychological process of interest must be understood.