The art of thinking · 4 · Comprehension and mental representation
Situation model
Also known as: Situational model
German: Situationsmodell
In the psychology of reading, a situation model is the reader’s mental representation of the situation a text describes — the objects, people, places, times, causes and goals — built from the text and the reader’s knowledge, beyond the wording and the propositions of the text itself.
- Cognitive psychology
- Reading comprehension
In one sentence
A situation model is the reader’s mental representation of what a text is about, beyond its wording (van Dijk and Kintsch 1983; Zwaan and Radvansky 1998).
Example
After reading a troubleshooting page, a technician pictures where the sensor sits, what the controller does when the signal drops and why the conveyor stops — and can predict what happens if the cable is loose.
What the research shows
Teun A. van Dijk and Walter Kintsch (1983) introduced the situation model as the third level of text representation, next to the surface code and the textbase. Rolf A. Zwaan and Gabriel A. Radvansky (1998) reviewed the evidence that readers build such models: they notice and slow down at inconsistencies in time, space, causation, a protagonist's goals or the people and objects involved, and they remember the described situation better than the exact wording. Their event-indexing view describes situation models as updated along these dimensions while reading.
Evidence status
That readers construct situation models is well supported by reading-time, memory and inconsistency-detection studies. How detailed and how automatic these models are is debated; readers often build only as much as their goal requires. The situation model for one text is related to, but not the same as, a mental model of a system, which is a longer-lived understanding of how the system works; the two inform each other.
How it applies
Readers who must act need a correct model of the situation — what is where, what causes what, what happens next — not only the sentences. The glossary “Applied cognitive psychology for information use” covers the design side, for example comprehensibility and advance organizers. A reader's situation model can be checked in tests with readers; it does not replace the information on hazards required for the product.
External references
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