The role of connectives in written discourse

In four experiments, I tested the hypothesis that connectives aid in the maintenance of local coherence by allowing readers to form expectations regarding the nature of the unfolding text. Using a story continuation task, in Experiment 1 I found that the presence of a connective leads readers to form specific expectations about how the story will continue. In Experiment 2, I used a recognition probe to determine if the previous findings would generalized to natural reading. After finding contrasting results, in Experiment 3 I used a more sensitive measure, reading time on an inconsistent line, to further explore this question. After finding no evidence that connectives allow readers to form generalized expectations about the incoming text, in Experiment 4, I asked if integration of text is facilitated when a connective is present. Findings indicate that although connectives do not cause readers to generate expectations about the nature of the unfolding text, they do aid readers in integrating the texts they link.