Abstracts - Earli

mentally integrate information from multiple external representations using differentrepresentational formats such as a text, a map and a time line graph into a dynamic mental modelin order to understand the course of events of an accident. The various information sources (text,map, time line graph) conveyed different combinations of spatial and temporal relations as well asrelations about causality and intentionality. The process of dynamic mental model constructionwas studied under different conditions. Besides spontaneous reading, participants had also toanswer questions on different levels of a taxonomy of coherence formation. These questionsrequired them to focus either on local coherence formation or on global coherence formationprocesses. Cognitive processes were monitored either by the registration of eye-movement or byusing the thinking aloud method. Results indicate that participants depending on the kind ofcoherence formation requirements reveal significantly different patters of bottom-up directedperceptual processes as indicated by eye movements and of top-down directed cognitive processesas indicated by the verbal data of the thinking aloud procedure. Furthermore, there are also specificasymmetries between processing of spatial patterns and processing of temporal patterns.– 644 –