Psycholinguistic interactive model of text comprehension (on the basis of different text-types)

The research purpose of the present paper is the analysis of experimental and theoretical investigations carried out within the approach known in Russian linguistics as the theory of text and sense or ''text psycholinguistics''. The principles of this scientific paradigm were developed by A. Novikov in his theoretical and experimental research made at the Applied Linguistics Department, the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, and continued by his followers and colleagues. Text perception and comprehension research is known to be associated with a number of difficulties connected with researcher penetration into the internal structures of person's consciousness and with explicit presentation of consciousness performance. While studying similar phenomena the subject of researcher's interest does not include the dynamic aspect but is concentrated on the result or product ''enclosed'' in a material verbal form. Different types of derived (''secondary'') texts can be considered as one of simple and available forms of comprehension product. Another material form of comprehension product is the ''denotation graph'' built as a result of applying ''denotative analysis'' method developed by Professor A. Novikov in the 1980s. However the ''internal text'' method gives us much more possibilities in this respect. The ''internal text'' method presents a set of recipients' consciousness reactions in a verbal form as a result of their comprehension of the source text. The method was suggested by A. Novikov in one of his last theoretical and experimental investigations in 2003. Later the experimental method was further developed by the author of the present paper in collaboration with young researchers with the purpose of building an interactive model of text comprehension. After ten years of studying comprehension in the field of text psycholinguistics we can speak of some achievements concerning general mechanisms and strategies of text understanding used by recipients in the processes of information perception and interpretation. Studies of various text-types comprehension (fiction, science, popular scientific texts, and the Bible) by means of the ''internal text'' method have contributed to discovery of several more data processing strategies used by recipients depending on their individual psychological properties, personal experience and previous knowledge, and depending on the definite text-type perceived. Experimental research with the text-types mentioned above as an object of comprehension make the basis for building several different models developed according to the same principles of the ''internal text'' method. The models differ from each other by the ''core'' including the dominating reaction-types and by the peripheral reactions accompanying the ''core'' ones in the text comprehension strategy of a recipient. These models considered as components of a general interactive mode of text comprehension are analyzed in the present paper.

Keywords

Authors

References