Cirilo, R. K. (1981). Referential coherence and text structure in story comprehension. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 20(3), 358-367.

Cirilo, R.

1981

Cirilo, R. K. (1981). Referential coherence and text structure in story comprehension. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 20(3), 358-367.

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Reading times (RTs) for 150 undergraduates were gathered for target sentences within stories. The targets either were or were not coreferential with a precursor sentence. In the former case, both the structural importance of the precursor and its distance from the target were varied. The stories were read under tasks differentially emphasizing micro- and macroprocesses. Results show that (1) the task influenced the effects of the textual variables on RT, (2) greater distances and lack of coreference elevated RTs but only when microprocesses were emphasized, and (3) RTs were faster when the precursor was structurally important but only when macroprocesses were emphasized. Recall data support the hypotheses about task emphasis.

The present results have demonstrated that, at least under certain conditions, manipulations of both the distance between two referentially linked propositions and the structural height of the earlier propositions influence the ease with which comprehension occurs. Moreover, the lack of referential coherence makes comprehension even more difficult. In short, alternations in the referential structure of a text alter its comprehensibility.

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