Coherence Threshold and the Continuity of Processing: The RI-Val Model of Comprehension

Abstract

Common to all models of reading comprehension is the assumption that a reader's level of comprehension is heavily influenced by their standards of coherence (van den Broek, Risden, & Husbye-Hartman, 1995). Our discussion focuses on a subcomponent of the readers' standards of coherence: the coherence threshold. We situate this discussion within our RI-Val model of comprehension in which we assume that three prominent processes—activation, integration, and validation—all run to completion regardless of whether readers have reached their coherence threshold. This continuity assumption provides the basis for predictions about the timing of processing effects both before and after the reader has reached the coherence threshold. We suggest that the coherence threshold assumption may have implications for several current areas of discourse processing research.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Jerry Myers for his sustained and consistent support of our programs of research. We also thank Bob Lorch and Paul van den Broek for discussions regarding the concept of standards of coherence and Bob for suggesting the term, coherence threshold.

Notes

¹ When we first introduced the RI-Val model in Cook and O'Brien (2014), we referred to this concept as a refinement of van den Broek et al.'s (1995) standards of coherence. However, since then it has become clear that we intend something different. The concept of coherence threshold, which we are arguing may be a component of standards of coherence, was not what was originally intended by the authors of the concept of standards of coherence.