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Charles R. (Randy) Fletcher Associate Professorfletc002@umn.edu S255 Elliott Hall, (612) 625-6096 Charles Fletcher's Homepage Education Ph.D., 1984, University of Colorado at Boulder |
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Statement of Interests
My research addresses two fundamental questions in the general area of discourse comprehension: How is the meaning of a discourse represented in memory? How is that representation constructed? On the first question, most of my efforts have been directed toward demonstrating experimentally the existence of three levels of representation in memory for discourse: a surface level representation, a propositional textbase, and a situation model. My research into the online processing of discourse has focused on the role of memory and attention in understanding the causal structure of narratives. This research involves both constructing computer models that simulate the flow of ideas through a reader's awareness during narrative comprehension and recall, and conducting experiments with human subjects to evaluate basic assumptions of those models. Recently, this research has branched off in several some directions. First, I have begun investigating how syntactic and semantic factors interact to control a reader's attention. Second, I have begun to examine the generalizability of our results to a new domain: the comprehension of mathematical and logical proofs. Finally, I have been investigating the effectiveness of computer software (LiveInk by Walker Reading Technologies) that has been designed to improve reading comprehension.
Selected Publications
Fletcher, C. R., Lucas, S., & Baron, C. M. (1999). Comprehension of mathematical proofs. In S. R. Goldman, A. C. Graesser, & P. van den Broek (Eds.), Narrative comprehension, causality, and coherence: Essays in honor of Tom Trabasso (pp. 195 -207). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Fletcher, C.R., Arthur, E., & Skeate, R.C. (1995). Top-down effects in a bottom-up model of narrative comprehension and recall. In Weaver, C.A., Mannes, S., & Fletcher, C.R. (Eds.), Discourse comprehension: Essays in honor of Walter Kintsch (pp. 195-210). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Fletcher, C.R. (1994). Levels of Representation in memory for discourse. In M.A. Gernsbacher (Ed). Handbook of psycholinguistics (pp. 589-607). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Fletcher, C.R. (1992). Assessing recognition memory for surface forms in discourse: A methodological note. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18, 199-203.
Fletcher, C.R., Hummel, J.E., & Marsolek, C.J. (1990). Causality and the allocation of attention during comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 233-240.