Table 2.

Description of Coh-Metrix indices that represent three dimensions of situation models.

Measure	Description	Example verbs or time representations	Example connectives
Causal cohesion	The ratio of causal connectives (particles) to causal verbs. This index measures how often participants provide connecting phrases to explain actions or events that have a causal mechanism, such as verbs reflecting a change in state (e.g., an earthquake erupting), which may or may not be driven by the goals of people.	break, freeze, impact, hit, move	because, in order to, so
Intentional cohesion	The ratio of intentional connectives to intentional verbs. This index measures how often participants provide connecting phrases to explain events or actions taken in pursuit of human goals (e.g., buying groceries, driving to work). Intentional actions include change verbs, contact verbs, competition verbs, and communicate verbs.	contact, drop, buy, drive, walk, talk	in order to, so that, by means of, by
Temporal cohesion	The ratio of temporal connectives to temporal shifts. This index measures how often participants provide connecting phrases to explain shifts in temporal tense and aspect throughout the text.	Tense: past, present, future Aspect: in progress, completed	after, before, until, later on, on the previous day

Note. Further information on Coh-Metrix 3.0 indices are available in McNamara et al. (2014).