Synthesis

This chapter opens with a discussion of the limitations of current models of reading, and moves on to the reasons why more comprehensive models of reading are necessary to advance our understanding of the mental, perceptual, and motoric processes that support reading. The chapter then provides a comparative analysis of the various approaches that have been adopted to model reading, and how the theoretical assumptions of models of word identification, sentence processing, discourse representation, and eye-movement control might be combined to build a more comprehensive model of reading in its entirety. The remainder of the chapter then describes one such model, Über-Reader, and a series of simulations to illustrate how the model explains word identification, sentence processing, the encoding and recall of discourse meaning, and the patterns of eye movements that are observed during reading. The final sections of the chapter then address both the limitations and possible future applications of the model.