The Role of Schemas in Reading Text: A Real-Time Examination

This article is concerned with how people process text in the presence or absence of a relevant schema. In particular, we focus on the effects of schema availability and concept repetition on both on-line integration and memory for text. Subjects were required to read "vague" texts (like Bransford and Johnson's, 1972, well-known "washing clothes" story) and their reading time for each sentence in each text was recorded. Half the texts were preceded by a title that activated a relevant schema, whereas the other half were presented without relevant schemas. Overall, reading time per sentence was substantially longer when reading without a schema than with one. The amount of extra time needed to read a sentence when no schema was available was the same at all points in the story. Also, when no schema was available reading time per sentence decreased with the number of repeated concepts in the sentence, whereas when a schema was available concept repetition had little effect. These results, along with the finding that schemas facilitated recall, indicate that: (a) schemas affect on-line comprehension, not just recall; and (b) reading without a schema involves the use of repeated concepts to connect propositions and perhaps the use of an abstract default schema to aid integration.