Connective Comprehension in Adults: The Influence of Lexical Transparency, Frequency, and Individual Differences

Figures & data

Table 1. Comprehension score per connective, including transparency and frequency per million words. Mean: average transformed coherence judgment score per connective.

Connective	Mean	Trans.	Freq.	Connective	Mean	Trans.	Freq.
as if	4.72	87	127	for	4.26	66	18
given that	4.67	82	13	notably	4.21	65	3
as though	4.62	81	29	consequently	4.05	85	8
on the contrary	4.57	83	4	conversely	4.03	61	4
hence	4.48	66	8	albeit	3.93	36	8
indeed	4.46	60	43	furthermore	3.87	73	21
accordingly	4.43	75	4	thereafter	3.80	74	7
even so	4.43	74	7	subsequently	3.72	64	2
nonetheless	4.42	63	18	moreover	3.59	63	29
in fact	4.40	88	89

Table 2. Descriptive statistics for the included tests. Kurt.: kurtosis; Rel.: Spearman-Brown corrected split-half reliability; α: Cronbach’s alpha.

Test	Possible	Observed	Mean	Median	SD	Skew	Kurt.	Rel.	α
	range	range
ART	0–65	0–60	19.70	18.00	11.70	0.96	3.95	.91	.89
VST	0–1	0.19–1	0.74	0.74	0.11	−1.09	6.38	.86	.86
RPMT	0–12	2–12	7.72	8.00	2.15	−0.43	2.68	.72	.70
CRT	0–1	0–1	0.31	0.20	0.25	0.76	2.92	.67	.61
Connective comp.	1–5	2.92–4.89	4.25	4.34	0.44	−0.94	3.31	.90	.86

Table 3. Pearson’s correlations for individual difference measures and the connective comprehension score, corrected for multiple comparisons. *Correlation significant at the p < .01 level.

	ART	VST	RPMT	CRT
VST	.61*	−
RPMT	.21*	.44*	−
CRT	.29*	.33*	.37*	−
Connective comp.	.34*	.64*	.43*	.23*

Table 4. Regression coefficients and test statistics from the full and final ordinal mixed-effects model.

	Full model				Final model
	β	SE	z	p	β	SE	z	p
Fixed effects
Condition	−0.10	0.26	−0.37	.71	−0.10	0.26	−0.37	.71
Lexical transparency	1.43	0.70	2.05	.04	1.39	0.48	2.88	<.005
Frequency	0.87	0.61	1.44	.15
ART	0.10	0.38	0.27	.79
VST	4.21	0.58	7.25	<.001	4.40	0.60	7.29	<.001
RPMT	0.74	0.31	2.36	.02	0.75	0.34	2.22	.03
CRT	−0.15	0.25	−0.60	.55	−0.12	0.27	−0.46	.64
Condition: Lexical transp.	−2.96	1.04	−2.86	<.01	−2.94	0.99	−2.97	<.001
Condition: Frequency	0.69	0.90	0.76	.45
Condition: ART	0.41	0.77	0.54	.59
Condition: VST	−0.14	1.16	−0.12	.90
Condition: RPMT	0.51	0.63	0.81	.42
Condition: CRT	0.80	0.51	1.56	.12	1.10	0.47	2.35	.02
Random effects
σ2	3.29				3.29
τ00 ID	.64				.69
τ00 Class	.46				.58
ICC	.38				.42
Observations	9,082				9,082
Marg. R^2 /Cond. R^2=	.130/.459				.112/.483

Figure 1. Effect display for the interaction effects between condition and lexical transparency (left) and condition and CRT (right) in the final model.

Figure 1A. Presents a distribution of the lexical transparency ratings per connective.

Data availability statement

All materials, data and code are available in an online repository at https://osf.io/85a3e/.