Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The processing of sentences, propositions, and conceptual structures was studied using a task environment which required subjects to read, interpret on-line, and recall a procedural text while reading times were measured for each sentence. A declarative representation of the conceptual frame structure of the procedure expressed in the text, as well as propositional and syntactic analysis of sentences, provided variables that were used to predict these three sets of data. Results showed that properties of the procedural frame, as well as propositional density, and clause structure predicted reading times, recall, and on-line interpretation, and that reading times decreased when high-level conceptual frame processing increased. These results were interpreted as evidence for parallel on-line conceptual processing of sentences during input. As well, reading times for information near boundaries of conceptual structure reflected some buffering in comprehension.