Research reveals that comprehension isn’t about storing sentences. It’s about constructing a dynamic mental simulation of what the text describes — a situation model that goes far beyond the words themselves.
The Problem: What Does Comprehension Actually Mean?
When we say someone “understood” a text, what do we mean? The intuitive answer — they can remember what it said — turns out to be incomplete. Surface memory of sentences fades quickly. What remains, what constitutes genuine understanding, is something deeper and more interesting.
Consider a simple example. You read: “Sarah walked into the kitchen, grabbed her keys from the counter, and rushed out the back door.” A few hours later, you probably won’t remember the exact words. But you’ll remember the scene: a woman in a kitchen, a hurried departure. You might even “remember” details the text never mentioned — what the kitchen looked like, which hand held the keys.
This phenomenon puzzled researchers for decades. If comprehension isn’t about storing sentences, what exactly does the brain create when we read? The answer emerged from cognitive psychology research in the 1980s and 1990s: the situation model.
What Research Shows
The situation model theory, developed primarily by researchers Walter Kintsch and Teun van Dijk, proposes that reading comprehension operates on three levels. The first is the surface level — the actual words and syntax. This level fades fastest; within hours, readers can’t distinguish original sentences from paraphrases.
The second level is the textbase — the meaning of the sentences themselves, independent of exact wording. This level persists longer but still represents only what the text explicitly states.
The third and deepest level is the situation model — a mental model of the world described by the text. This isn’t a transcript; it’s a simulation. When you read about Sarah’s kitchen, your brain doesn’t just record “kitchen.” It constructs a kitchen, populated with objects, laid out in space, connected to what you know about kitchens generally.
In classic experiments, researchers had participants read stories where characters moved through spaces. Later, participants were faster to answer questions about objects that were “nearby” the character’s current location in the story — even though all objects were equally close in the text itself. The readers had built spatial models they could mentally navigate.
Similar effects appear for time, causation, and character goals. Readers track these dimensions automatically, updating their models as new information arrives.
The Deeper Analysis
What Situation Models Contain
Research has identified at least five dimensions that readers track in their situation models: space (where things are), time (when things happen), causation (why things happen), protagonist goals (what characters want), and entities (who and what is involved). Skilled readers maintain and update all five dimensions continuously.
This is cognitively demanding. When a text introduces a temporal shift (“Three years later…”) or a spatial shift (“Meanwhile, in Paris…”), readers must update their models. These updates take measurable time — reading slows at transition points. Comprehension suffers when updates are too frequent or too complex.
The Role of Prior Knowledge
Situation models aren’t built from text alone. They draw heavily on prior knowledge — your existing mental schemas for kitchens, departures, emotions, and everything else. This explains why background knowledge is so crucial for comprehension: you can’t build a model of something you’ve never encountered.
When readers lack relevant knowledge, they fall back on surface processing. They can often repeat what the text said without understanding what it meant. This is the “word calling” phenomenon — fluent oral reading with minimal comprehension — and it occurs when the reader can’t construct a situation model from the text.
Text: “The notes were sour because the seams split.”
Without context: Readers struggle to build any coherent model. The sentence is grammatical but meaningless — there’s no situation to simulate.
With context (“bagpipes”): Suddenly the model snaps into place. Bagpipes have seams. Split seams let air escape. Insufficient air produces sour notes. The reader builds a causal model of bagpipe malfunction.
Same words, entirely different comprehension — because the knowledge enables model construction.
Inference and Model Completion
Texts never say everything explicitly. Readers must make inferences to complete their models. “Sarah grabbed her keys and rushed out” doesn’t state that she intended to go somewhere, that the keys were for a car or house, or that she was in a hurry for a reason. Readers infer all of this, filling gaps in the text with plausible content from their knowledge base.
These inferences become part of the situation model — indistinguishable from what the text actually said. This explains why readers often “remember” information that was implied but never stated. Their models contained the inference, and memory doesn’t distinguish model content by source.
Implications for Readers
Why Some Texts Are Hard
Text difficulty isn’t just vocabulary or sentence length. It’s the demands placed on model construction. Texts that require frequent model updates, texts that assume knowledge readers lack, and texts that leave too many gaps for inference — all become difficult because they strain the comprehension process.
This explains why “readable” texts can still be incomprehensible. A text might use simple words and short sentences but describe unfamiliar situations requiring constant model revision. The surface seems easy; the model building is exhausting.
Deep readers don’t just process words — they actively construct and interrogate their situation models. They ask: Can I picture this? Does this fit what came before? What’s being assumed but not stated? This metacognitive awareness of model-building is a hallmark of expert reading. It can be taught, and it dramatically improves comprehension.
Active Construction vs. Passive Reception
The situation model perspective reveals reading as fundamentally active. You’re not receiving a message; you’re building a world. The text provides blueprints and materials, but the construction happens in your mind. Two readers with different knowledge will build different models from identical text.
This is why simply re-reading difficult passages often fails. If you lack the knowledge or active engagement to build a model, more exposure to the same words won’t help. What helps is activating relevant knowledge, slowing down to construct coherent scenes, and checking whether your model makes sense.
What This Means for You
Understanding situation models transforms how you approach reading. First, recognize that comprehension is construction. When you finish a paragraph, ask yourself: Can I describe the situation it depicts? If you can only recall words, you haven’t comprehended — you’ve only processed surface features.
Second, activate knowledge before reading. Preview texts to identify what they’re about, then consciously recall what you already know about those topics. This pre-activates the schemas you’ll need for model building.
Third, monitor your models as you read. When something contradicts your current understanding, don’t gloss over it — update your model deliberately. When you realize you can’t picture what’s being described, stop and figure out why. These moments of model failure are where comprehension breaks down.
Finally, test your models after reading. Can you explain the content to someone else? Can you draw a diagram? Can you answer questions that require inference, not just recall? These activities probe whether you built a genuine situation model or merely processed words.
For more insights into how the brain processes text, explore the complete Understanding Text collection in our Reading Concepts hub.
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