Accessing Of Backgrounded Information In Text-reading Comprehension

Reading is one of the foremost cognitive activities, researches on text-reading comprehension have been an important and special part of cognitive psychology all the times. In this paper, first of all, a review was presented on the history of researches on text-reading comprehension briefly, and the current research situation was introduced. Then the progress on the accessing of backgrounded information in text-reading was introduced in detail. To decide which is true between memory-based text processing view and here-and-now hypothesis, four studies were designed to explore the fact.In study 1, the passages of Zwaan and Madden(2004) were used to test their research during reading Chinese text. In study 2, based on their passages, the amount of conflict description in reenable conditions was increased to improve the activation of background information. The conclusion was: no reliable difference in reading times between their enable and reenable conditions was found, it confirmed Zwaan and Madden's results and supported here and now hypothesis.In study 3, according to D.murray's design, O'Brien's materials were used and the qualified conditions were modified. By pointing out the target behavior being performed clearly, the rationality of target behavior in qualified conditions was increased and equaled to consistent conditions. In study 4, the consistent conditions were modified. The primary content words in qualified and conflict conditions were added to consistent conditions to make wording equal in different conditions. The result showed that there was reliable difference in reading times between qualified and consistent condition, which supported the memory-based text processing view.At last, the future views were discussed.