Abstract: How to construct situation model is the hotspot in comprehension study. The prevailing propositional symbol theory proposes situation models are amodal system composed of a bunch of relative propositions. With the development of knowledge representing theory, perceptual symbol theory conceptualizes situation models as modal system containing perceptual symbol. This paper compared the different explanations of situation model based on different theories, introduced the experiments to verify their reasonableness and prospected the way to validate two theories.

Key words: situation model, propositional symbol theory, perceptual symbol theory