Updating Situation Models: The Memory-Based Contribution

O'Brien, Rizzella, Albrecht, and Halleran (1998) demonstrated that when a protagonist is introduced with information that is inconsistent with an action described in a subsequent target sentence, reading times on that sentence were disrupted. This occurred even when the inconsistent information was followed by consistent information that outdated the inconsistent information. Three experiments are reported that examine factors that may have contributed to the reactivation of outdated information. In Experiment 1, the order of introduction of the consistent and inconsistent information was reversed so that the initial character information was consistent with the target sentence. Despite introducing the protagonist with information consistent with the target sentence, reading continued to be disrupted. In Experiments 2 and 3, the amount of consistent information was increased. The additional consistent information eliminated any comprehension difficulty on the target sentence caused by the inconsistent information; however, Experiment 3 confirmed that the inconsistent information continued to be reactivated. Results are discussed in terms of memory-based contributions to the updating process.