From comprehension to learning and back again

During reading, we draw on our background knowledge to help us comprehend the text. But background knowledge also comes into play during reading in a different way: reading creates knowledge. Kintsch deemed the distinction between regular comprehension and learning very important and argued that learning from text crucially depends on deep comprehension that goes beyond a basic situation model–by definition involving effortful and often intentional processes. In this commentary, we unpack the comprehension-learning connection. We do so by drawing on our independent and collaborative work on discourse theory building that has been influenced greatly by this idea. In particular, we discuss the circumstances under which readers exert the additional effort, in the context of the notion of standards of coherence, and the way in which the ensuing processes lead to the embedding of text information into background knowledge, in the context of the Landscape and KreC models. Along the way, we suggest important venues for future research.