Using temporal cohesion to predict temporal coherence in narrative and expository texts

Nicholas D. Duran; Philip M. McCarthy; Art C. Graesser; Danielle S. McNamara

doi:10.3758/BF03193150

Using temporal cohesion to predict temporal coherence in narrative and expository texts

Nicholas D. Duran, Philip M. McCarthy, Art C. Graesser, Danielle S. McNamara

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigated the linguistic features of temporal cohesion that distinguish variations in temporal coherence. In an analysis of 150 texts, experts rated temporal coherence on three continuous scale measures designed to capture unique representations of time. Coh-Metrix, a computational tool that assesses textual cohesion, correctly predicted the human ratings with five features of temporal cohesion. The correlations between predicted and actual scores were all statistically significant In a complementary study, we explored the importance of temporal cohesion in characterizing genre. A discriminant function analysis, using Coh-Metrix temporal indices, successfully distinguished the genres of science, history, and narrative texts. The results suggested that history texts are more similar to narrative texts than to science texts in terms of temporal cohesion.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	212-223
Number of pages	12
Journal	Behavior Research Methods
Volume	39
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193150
State	Published - May 2007
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Psychology (miscellaneous)
General Psychology

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Using temporal cohesion to predict temporal coherence in narrative and expository texts

Abstract

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