Narrative Understanding

Narrative understanding, the computational modeling of how humans comprehend stories, aims to decipher the cognitive processes involved in interpreting narratives, including inferring character relationships, tracking events, and understanding authorial intent. Current research heavily utilizes large language models (LLMs) like BERT and GPT, focusing on benchmarks that assess their ability to handle complex relationships, hierarchical event structures, and the nuances of longer texts. These efforts are crucial for advancing both our understanding of human cognition and for developing more sophisticated AI systems capable of nuanced language processing and creative text generation, with applications ranging from improved AI assistants to more engaging interactive narratives.