Text comprehension entails the construction of a situation model that prepares individuals for situated action. In order to meet this function, situation model representations are required to be both accurate and stable. We propose a framework according to which comprehenders rely on epistemic validation to prevent inaccurate information from…

As readers experience narratives, they have ample opportunities to generate expectations about likely outcomes. We suggest that past research on such expectations has ignored the extent to which readers bring their own preferences to bear on those outcomes. In four experiments, we demonstrate that reader preferences can influence expectations for…