Chapter 4: Interweaving Memory-Based Processes into the Goal-Focusing Model of Text Relevance

Relevance instructions play an important role in reading comprehension and are assumed to be heavily influenced by active, constructive memory processes. Although much of the research on relevance instruction has focused on these active memory processes, there is undoubtedly some influence from memory processes that are assumed to be passive. In this chapter we examine how passive memory processes, which are central to the memory-based text processing view (e.g., Gerrig & McKoon, 1998; Gerrig & O’Brien, 2005; O’Brien & Myers, 1999), can contribute to an understanding of relevance instruction. The goal of the current chapter is to describe how passive memory processes, consistent with the memory-based view, can be interwoven within McCrudden and Schraw’s (2007) goal-focusing model of text relevance. Incorporating the role of passive activation processes is an advantage for further developing an understanding of relevance instruction and might serve to enhance the benefits of relevance instructions overall.{\abs}