Reversing the Reverse Cohesion Effect: Good Texts Can Be Better for Strategic, High-Knowledge Readers

Abstract

Students with low knowledge have been shown to better understand and learn more from more cohesive texts, whereas high-knowledge students have been shown to learn more from lower cohesion texts; this has been called the reverse cohesion effect. This study examines whether students' comprehension skill affects the interaction between text cohesion and their domain knowledge. College students (n= 143) read either a high- or a low-cohesion text and answered text-based and bridging inference questions. The results indicated that the benefit of low-cohesion text was restricted to less skilled, high-knowledge readers, whereas skilled comprehenders with high knowledge benefited from a high-cohesion text. Consistent with McNamara (2001), the interaction of text cohesion and knowledge was restricted to text-based questions. In addition, for low-knowledge readers, the benefits of high-cohesion texts emerged in their responses to bridging inference questions but not text-based questions. The results suggest a more complex view of when and for whom textual cohesion affects comprehension.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was conducted while Tenaha O'Reilly was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Memphis. Tenaha is currently at Educational Testing Service.