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 van den Broek, P., Risden, K., & Husebye-Hartmann, E. (1995). The role of readers' standards for coherence in the generation of inferences during reading. In R. F. Lorch & E. J. O'Brien (Eds.), Sources of coherence in reading (pp. 353–373). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. [Google Scholar]). 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.