Egocentric inference of object positions during reading and listening

Subjects read narratives describing several objects surrounding a protagoni st. In taking the protagonist's perspec tive, subjects constructed egocentr ic mental models of the described object configurations. During the test ph ase, the mental model had to be updated according to reorientations of the protagonist. We examined if objects are localized immediately within the eg ocentric reference frame of the mental model, even if they are not linguist ically localized relative to the protagonist, that is, if egocentric object positions have to be inferred. In two experiments, narratives. and test it ems were presented either visually or aurally. In a third experiment, narra tives were presented visually but test items were presented aurally. We fou nd that recipients tended to Idealize every object immediately within the e gocentric reference frame. But since reading interferes with updating of th e mental model, subjects did not localize every object egocentrically if vi sual presentation was used throughout.