Abstract

The objective of this study was twofold. First, it aimed to determine the effects of the level of subjectivity and explicitness of causal coherence relations on primary students' processing and comprehension. Second, it explored whether those effects vary depending on the students' socioeconomic status (SES). For that purpose, a self-paced reading experiment with cumulative window was carried out, in which primary students from public (low SES) and private (high SES) schools participated. Data reveal that, in general, students achieve low levels of comprehension, which is even lower in low SES students. It was also observed that the effects of the subjectivity of the coherence relation were bigger than those of the explicitness of the relation. With regard to the difference across types of school, high SES students performed better than low SES students when processing and comprehending subjective relations.