The art of thinking · 4 · Comprehension and mental representation
Construction-integration model
Also known as: CI model, Construction–integration theory
German: Konstruktions-Integrations-Modell
In cognitive psychology, the construction-integration model is Walter Kintsch’s theory of text comprehension: readers first construct a loose network of propositions from the text and their knowledge, then integrate it by spreading activation, so that context-appropriate meanings survive; comprehension is represented at three levels — surface code, textbase and situation model.
- Cognitive psychology
- Reading comprehension
In one sentence
Kintsch’s construction-integration model explains comprehension as building, then integrating meaning: surface code, textbase, situation model (1988).
Example
A reader can repeat “Open valve V3 before you start the pump” word for word (surface code) and know what it says (textbase), yet not grasp that the pump runs dry otherwise (situation model).
What the research shows
Teun A. van Dijk and Walter Kintsch (1983) distinguished three levels of text representation: the surface code (the exact words and syntax), the textbase (the propositions the text expresses) and the situation model (what the text is about, integrated with the reader's knowledge). Kintsch (1988) proposed that comprehension runs in two phases: in the construction phase, propositions from the text and associated knowledge are activated loosely, including irrelevant meanings; in the integration phase, activation spreads through the network until it settles, and only the mutually consistent elements remain strongly active. Kintsch developed the model into a general theory in Comprehension: A Paradigm for Cognition (1998). Danielle S. McNamara and Walter Kintsch (1996) found that readers with low prior knowledge learned more from a more coherent text, while readers with high knowledge sometimes learned more from a less coherent one, which made them work actively.
Evidence status
The model is one of the most influential theories of text comprehension, and the three levels are widely used in reading research. Its computational details (how propositions are formed and weighted) are hard to test directly, and other models emphasize different mechanisms. Readability formulas measure features of the surface code; they do not capture whether readers build a correct situation model.
How it applies
A text can be correct sentence by sentence and still fail to produce understanding, because the reader cannot connect it to the situation or lacks the knowledge to do so. The glossary “Applied cognitive psychology for information use” takes this up under comprehensibility and readability formulas. Testing comprehension with readers shows whether the situation model is right; the model itself does not set requirements for documentation.
External references
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