Abstract
Kelter, S., Kaup, B., & Claus, B. (2004). Representing a described sequence
of events: A dynamic view of narrative comprehension. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 451–464.
This study explored the representation that readers construct when advancing through
the description of an unfolding occurrence. In three experiments, participants
read narratives describing a sequence of events and at a certain moment were tested
for the accessibility of an entity from a past event. Entities were less accessible
when the temporal distance between that past event and the narrative Now was relatively
long than when it was shorter. This effect occurred when temporal distance was
varied in terms of the duration of an intervening event but not when it was varied
in terms of a temporal shift. The results suggest that the representation constructed
for the description of an unfolding occurrence mimics its temporal structure.
This is consistent with a dynamic view of narrative comprehension.
Barbara Kaup