Perko, Toni.
(2016).
Mental models and memory in reading.
Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature.
[mentor Zovko Dinković, Irena].
Abstract
The purpose of this paper and the research that was carried out for it was to determine whether constructing a mental model for the reader would have an effect on the terms that would be recalled by the reader after having a short time to read through a text. Research that was conducted by Heeter (1997) showed that constructing a mental model would have an effect on the reader’s memory retrieval and the results that were gathered in the research for this paper
have confirmed this. While the results were not as obvious as expected, it can be seen that constructing a mental model within the text for the reader will have an impact on the terms that will be recalled. These results have confirmed the primary hypothesis of the paper. The secondary hypothesis of the paper which claimed that the capacity of the working memory would be higher in bilingual students when compared to their monolingual colleagues has not been confirmed since monolingual participants have shown a higher capacity of working memory when recalling the text that they read. Although previous research showed a higher capacity of working memory in bilinguals than in monolinguals, the results of this research have not confirmed this even when comparing only the groups of participants who participated in the research in their mother tongue. In conclusion, mental models can affect the semantic memory of the reader. Constructing a mental model for the reader will make him more likely to remember parts of the text that he/she finds more important. Additionally, bilingualism appears to have no effect on the capacity of
the working memory in students of a foreign language although previous research suggested otherwise.
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