title: Processing of positive-causal and negative-causal coherence relations in primary school children and adults: a test of the cumulative cognitive complexity approach in German.
abstract: Establishing local coherence relations is central to text comprehension. Positive-causal coherence relations link a cause and its consequence, whereas negative-causal coherence relations add a contrastive meaning (negation) to the causal link. According to the cumulative cognitive complexity approach, negative-causal coherence relations are cognitively more complex than positive-causal ones. Therefore, they require greater cognitive effort during text comprehension and are acquired later in language development. The present cross-sectional study tested these predictions for German primary school children from Grades 1 to 4 and adults in reading and listening comprehension. Accuracy data in a semantic verification task support the predictions of the cumulative cognitive complexity approach. Negative-causal coherence relations are cognitively more demanding than positive-causal ones. Moreover, our findings indicate that children's comprehension of negative-causal coherence relations continues to develop throughout the course of primary school. Findings are discussed with respect to the generalizability of the cumulative cognitive complexity approach to German.
authors: University of Kassel.
authors: Julia
authors: J
authors: Knoepke
authors: University of Kassel.
authors: Tobias
authors: T
authors: Richter
authors: University of Kassel.
authors: Maj-Britt
authors: MB
authors: Isberner
authors: Goethe University Frankfurt.
authors: Johannes
authors: J
authors: Naumann
authors: German Institute for International Educational Research.
authors: Yvonne
authors: Y
authors: Neeb
authors: University of Bamberg.
authors: Sabine
authors: S
authors: Weinert
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D032882:Comprehension; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult