Causal pattern test and cloze test: a study of L2 learners using distributed models of conceptual representation

The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive processes involved in cloze passage and causal pattern tests. Two tests of causal patterns (one in Persian and one in English) and a cloze test were administered among a group of 30 participants. Correlations between participants’ scores were calculated. The results showed that there was a significant correlation between participants’ scores in each pair of the three tests. These results suggest that there might be similarity between causal pattern test and cloze test in terms of cognitive resources and cognitive operations that are employed during answering items of these tests. These similarities are described on the basis of distributed models of conceptual representation. Furthermore, it is proposed that there are some similarities between the strategies that can be employed by test takers to find the correct answers in these two types of test. The individuals who are better in simultaneous activation of various semantic properties, including semantic properties that are related to cause-effect relationships, are more successful in identifying causal patterns among various elements of a text.