Strategies for resolving coherence breaks in reading

Abstract

In two experiments, participants read passages containing an elaborate description of a main character that was either consistent, inconsistent, or neutral with respect to actions carried out by that character later in the text. The descriptions and subsequent target actions were separated by filler material that created a coherence break at either a local level or a global level. In Experiment 1, reading times for critical sentences containing the target actions were significantly longer when the early description and the critical sentences were inconsistent. This was true for both the local and global coherence conditions. In Experiment 2, resolution of global inconsistencies improved memory for the regions of the text that involved the inconsistencies, whereas resolution of local inconsistencies did not. The results are discussed in terms of the different strategies readers may use to resolve local and global coherence breaks.

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