Where readers read

     In addition to providing a hypothesis of why readers read, it is necessary to present a short discussion of under what circumstances texts are read. I begin by considering where humans read--the average reading experience does not occur under laboratory conditions. People will read almost anywhere; the only required elements are the reader and the material being read. Therefore, the human reading experience is situated in the world. Situated cognition is currently a popular term in the cognitive science community (e.g.,           [#!situated:Suchman-1987!#,#!situated:Brown-Collins-Duguid-1988!#,#!situated:Stahl-1993!#]). Although some natural language researchers have begun to use this term (often synonymously with the word active), I do not feel that there exists a unified understanding of what the term actually denotes. Ultimately, I feel the term will come to indicate the understanding of the reading process as it happens in the ``field'' rather than the style of reading which occurs under strict laboratory settings. Is this distinction a valid one? While I feel it is, my current work has not focused on this aspect of reading; thus, I am unable to offer firm support.   Also, the ISAAC system is not a complete agent which is capable of having the situated experiences which a human is able to. This is another reason it is impossible for me to claim that ISAAC is a true situated reasoner. However, there is research which indicates that an awareness of the ``real world's'' impact on reading can be significant with respect to the level of processing which is required (see, for example,     [#!read:carpenter!#]).

It is in this light that I present elements of my own work as having ties to situated reading. In particular, there are three aspects of situated cognition which I see as applicable:

1.

Each individual task which I present as being a component for the entire reading process is situated within the context of the entire theory, thereby drawing strength from the overall structure.

2.

The reading theory is situated in a real reading context. The author of a text is assumed to be attempting to communicate a set of ideas to the reader. Comprehension is the goal that the author is striving for. As a result, the text provides numerous affordances to comprehension. Notice that this is the closest interpretation I have to the traditional idea of ``situated in the world'' which I discussed in the prior paragraph.

3.

Finally, the theory assumes that the reader is a situated agent, deciding exactly what cognitive effort to expend during a particular reading attempt. This means that the reader engages the text to the fullest level possible, given the reader's interest, cognitive load, and current goals.

By making use of situated processing, the theory is able to possess some important constraints. In addition, the situated nature allows support for the reading activity that would not otherwise be possible. Thus, the situated stance, as I make use of it, is an important part of my research   methodology and resulting theory.