ANSWERING WHEN QUESTIONS ABOUT FUTURE EVENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF A CALENDAR SYSTEM

Three experiments tested a model of question answering called WHEN, wh ich explains the answer descriptions that are generated when adults an swer when questions (Golding, Magliano, & Hemphill, 1992). College stu dents answered questions about future events in the context of a 12-mo nth calendar year. The WHEN model specifies how the time of the future event is expressed as a function of the temporal interval between the present point in time and the time of a future event (1-90 days away) . The answers included generative descriptions (e.g., ''next week on W ednesday'') and specific dates (e.g., ''August 13''). The answers syst ematically varied as a function of temporal interval in a fashion that supported most of the production rules of the WHEN model.