Cohesion and Coherence-Building in Multiple Document Comprehension

EasyChair Preprint 6138

Abstract

We examined the cohesion of readers’ constructed responses to multiple documents in relation to source-based essay quality. Participants (n=95) were prompted to think-aloud, self-explain, or evaluate sources while reading a set of texts; they then used the texts to write a source-based essay. Natural language processing techniques were used to analyze the cohesion of the constructed responses at within- and across-documents levels. Results indicated that within-document cohesion was negatively related to essay quality, whereas across-document cohesion was positively related to essay quality. These relations differed by condition; self-explanation and source evaluation instructions were related to greater across-text integration than think-alouds.

Keyphrases: Natural Language Processing, cohesion, comprehension, writing

@booklet{EasyChair:6138,
  author    = {Allison N. Sonia and Joseph P. Magliano and Kathryn S. McCarthy and Sarah D. Creer and Danielle S. McNamara and Laura K. Allen},
  title     = {Cohesion and Coherence-Building in Multiple Document Comprehension},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 6138},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2021}}