Sentence-Picture Verification Models as Theories of Sentence Comprehension: A Critique of Carpenter and Just

We consider several recent information^processing models of sentence-picture matching to assess their implications for sentence processing. The representational component of the models describes a task-specific "verification representation" that is derived from a more general representation needed for comprehension. The specific models do not describe the processes by which these representations are derived; nor do the assumptions common to the models shed light on the structure of these verification representations. The models are, at best, detailed descriptions of the processes by which subjects verify sentences that they have already understood against pictures that they have already perceived.