The Effect Of Causal Relation And Time On The Situation Model Processing

In two experiments, the effects of the causal relation and time representation on the situation model processing of texts were tested. The experiments used 2×3 within design, the short stories were experiment materials, the reading time of the critical sentence was the dependent variable in experiment 1 and experiment 2. The results of experiment 1 indicated: time representation was the important dimension for situation model processing when it was given direct, the results supported the scenario model; causal relation also played important role in situation model processing. The results of experiment 2 indicated: when time representation was given indirect, causal relation could affect situation model processing in short time, the results still supported the scenario model. The results of both experiment 1 and experiment 2 indicated: causal relation and time representation affected situation model processing, texts with causal relation could be processed faster than texts without causal relation.