The Importance of Causal Connections in the Comprehension of Spontaneous Discourse

Y. CEVASCO, J.

College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota

Jornada; Reading Research Day; 2004

Center for Reading Research

In this study, we examined the psychological processes in the comprehension of spontaneous discourse. Our aim was to determine whether identification of causal relations amongst spontaneous discourse components is a central factor in understanding the discourse, as it has been found to be in reading comprehension. We investigated the role of causal relations in college students’ free recall after they either read a transcript of a radio transmission or spontaneous discourse or listened to this radio transmission. Results indicated that identification of causal relations amongst spontaneous discourse components is a central factor for comprehension, just as has been found for narratives. In addition, our results revealed remarkably similar patterns for recall when the materials were presented in oral or written formats. In both cases, comprehenders remembered text components with many causal connections more often than components with fewer connections. Thus causal processing has an important role in spontaneous discourse comprehension, and there appears to be continuity between spoken and written discourse.