Interaction between connectives and previous knowledge in the processing of causal coherence

Abstract

The current study aimed at determining the effect of connectives on low and high knowledge readers' processing efficiency of causal coherence relations. To achieve this goal, we carried out an experiment with college students from the same program using the self-paced reading paradigm with cumulative windows and combing online (reading times) and offline measures (accuracy in a verification task). To control their previous knowledge, participants were grouped based on the Novice-Expert paradigm (first and fifth year, respectively). Our data show, in a general level, that although causal connectives trigger higher reading times they facilitate a deeper comprehension. Regarding the comparison across groups, although our data do not show differences between Novice and Experts, they reveal the same general pattern. These findings suggest that, at least in highly specialized contexts, connectives trigger a planned reading, which involve that high-knowledge students (like ours) use their cognitive resources to ensure a deeper comprehension. Likewise, our data suggest that faster reading does not necessarily translate into the construction of a coherent mental representation.