Readers build a mental representation of text during reading. The coherence building processes readers use to build a mental representation during reading is key to comprehension. We examined the effects of self-explanation on coherence building processes as undergraduates ( = 51) read five complementary texts about natural selection and completed a post-reading measure of topic knowledge. Participants generated constructed responses (verbal protocols) while reading. We varied the use of constructed response prompt (self-explain vs. think-aloud) and constructed response format (typed vs. oral) to examine their impact on the quality of readers’ constructed responses and their coherence building processes (i.e., cohesion). Participants who received self-explanation instructions had higher quality constructed responses than participants who received think-aloud instructions, regardless of whether responses were typed or spoken aloud. Natural Language Processing (NLP) analyses indicated that participants who were prompted to self-explain generated more cohesive responses than those who were prompted to think-aloud. Participants who received self-explanation instructions had more coherent mental models during reading and typing was related to more cohesive responses when participants were asked to self-explain. Participants whose constructed responses were more lexically cohesive during reading had better performance on the post-reading test.

中文翻译：

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在阅读多个补充文档时建立连贯性

读者在阅读过程中建立文本的心理表征。读者在阅读过程中用来构建心理表征的连贯性构建过程是理解的关键。当本科生（= 51）阅读五篇有关自然选择的补充文本并完成主题知识的读后测量时，我们研究了自我解释对连贯性构建过程的影响。参与者在阅读时生成了构建的响应（口头协议）。我们改变了构建响应提示（自我解释与出声思考）和构建响应格式（打字与口头）的使用，以检查它们对读者构建响应的质量及其连贯性构建过程（即凝聚力）的影响。接受自我解释指令的参与者比接受有声思考指令的参与者具有更高质量的构建反应，无论反应是打字还是大声说出。自然语言处理（NLP）分析表明，被提示进行自我解释的参与者比被提示出声思考的参与者产生了更有凝聚力的反应。接受自我解释指令的参与者在阅读和打字过程中具有更连贯的心理模型，这与当要求参与者进行自我解释时更连贯的反应有关。在阅读过程中构建的反应在词汇上更具凝聚力的参与者在阅读后测试中表现更好。