Coh-Metrix

2011/06/01 by Arthur C. Graesser, Danielle S. McNamara, Jonna M. Kulikowich · 615 citations
Computer Science · Psychology · #Cognition #Cognitive psychology #Cohesion (chemistry) #Computer science #Concreteness #Educational Strategies and Epistemologies #Epistemology #Linguistics #Natural language processing #Psychology #Reading (process) #Reading and Literacy Development #Reading comprehension #Simplicity #Text Readability and Simplification

paper · doi:10.3102/0013189x11413260

published in Educational Researcher 40(5), 223-234 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2011/06/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Computer analyses of text characteristics are often used by reading teachers, researchers, and policy makers when selecting texts for students. The authors of this article identify components of language, discourse, and cognition that underlie traditional automated metrics of text difficulty and their new Coh-Metrix system. Coh-Metrix analyzes texts on multiple measures of language and discourse that are aligned with multilevel theoretical frameworks of comprehension. The authors discuss five major factors that account for most of the variance in texts across grade levels and text categories: word concreteness, syntactic simplicity, referential cohesion, causal cohesion, and narrativity. They consider the importance of both quantitative and qualitative characteristics of texts for assigning the right text to the right student at the right time.

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