Sanders, T. J. M., & Noordman, L. G. M. (2000). The role of coherence relations and their linguistic markers in text processing. Discourse Processes, 29(1), 37-60.

Sanders, T.; Noordman, L.

2000

Sanders, T. J. M., & Noordman, L. G. M. (2000). The role of coherence relations and their linguistic markers in text processing. Discourse Processes, 29(1), 37-60.

geen

When readers process a text, they establish a coherent representation by means of coherence relations. This article focuses on the cognitive status of these relations. In an experiment using reading, verification, and free recall tasks, 2 crucial aspects of the structure of expository texts were investigated: the type of coherence relation between segments (problem-solution vs. list) and the linguistic marking of the relations by means of signaling phrases (implicit vs. explicit). Both factors affected text processing. Problem solution relations lead to faster processing, better verification, and superior recall. Explicit marking of the relations resulted in faster processing but did not affect recall. We conclude that the processing of a text segment depends on the relation it has with preceding segments. The relational marker has an effect during online processing, but its influence decreases over time. This contrasts with the effect of the coherence relation, which is also manifest in the recall.

The most important finding in this study is that a text segment is processed faster when it is connected by a problem-solution structure than when it is connected by a list relation. At the same time this segment is verified faster and more accurately in the problem-solution context. In addition, it is recalled more often and participants more often use the same coherence relation to relate the information in the target sentence to the rest of the recall. These findings lead to the conclusion that different coherence relations are processed differently. Readers use less time to process a segment connected in a problem-solution structure. But there are nevertheless able to make all adequate representation of it, to verity it more accurately, and to reproduce it even better than a list structure.

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