Multiple Text Comprehension Research Articles

Readers’ awareness in the use of intertextual strategies when writing from multiple texts

Metacognitive reading awareness, involving cognitive process control and reading strategies, is linked to better comprehension and performance, but its relationship with intertextual integration strategies and the quality of argumentative essays remains unexplored. This study aimed to investigate the role of metacognition in employing integration strategies when reading conflicting texts. 69 undergraduate students participated in an online reading-writing activity, where they wrote argumentative essays based on conflicting texts about red meat consumption. We examined the students' use of intertextual integration strategies (refutation, weighing, synthesizing) and assessed their metacognitive awareness through their reflections on these strategies. The quality of the argumentative essays served as a measure of multiple text comprehension. The results indicated a lack of metacognitive awareness regarding integration strategies, with students overestimating their ability to employ these strategies. However, they demonstrated better understanding of refutational strategies based on the examples provided in their essays. Interestingly, students who were aware of and utilized these strategies in their essays performed better in the multiple-text comprehension task.

Promoting multiple-text comprehension through thinking dispositions: a randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT The present study tested the efficacy of an intervention on thinking dispositions on multiple-text comprehension performance. The participants in the study were 75 undergraduate students. First, participants completed pretest assessment tests (prior beliefs and knowledge, thinkinPromoting multiple-text comprehension through thinking dispositions: a randomized controlled trialg dispositions). Second, the participants were randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 36) or control condition (n = 35). In each condition they were asked to read instructional material about critical thinking when reading from multiple texts. The experimental group students were specifically instructed on the definition and functioning of thinking dispositions. Third, participants read two texts about the controversial topic of red meat consumption, answered to a comprehension test, and wrote an argumentative essay (coded by length and argumentative quality). Overall, the thinking disposition intervention was effective in promoting a higher engagement with the task and a higher level of argumentative quality.

Investigating the role of prior knowledge in comprehending intratextual and intertextual relationships when reading multiple texts

This study investigates whether prior knowledge indirectly affects intertextual comprehension performance through its effect on intratextual comprehension. The secondary data analysis used raw data from extant studies, all of which assessed these three aspects of multiple text comprehension (i.e., prior knowledge, intratextual comprehension, and intertextual comprehension). The results demonstrated that prior knowledge was a positive predictor of readers' abilities to integrate information across multiple texts, with this effect mediated by intratextual comprehension performance. Further, the mediated effect of prior knowledge on intertextual comprehension via intratextual comprehension was weaker when the measures reflected readers' ability to reproduce integrated ideas within and across reader-generated essays than when they reflected readers' abilities to recognize linkages among ideas distributed across multiple texts. The results uniquely contribute to the understanding of the complex relationship between individual differences and multiple text comprehension, with particular insights that this relationship may depend on the outcome measures that are used. Educational relevance statementPrior knowledge has both a direct and an indirect influence on intertextual comprehension, with the latter mediated through intratextual comprehension. Moreover, the strength of this indirect influence depends on whether the comprehension measures required that readers identify or recreate valid inferences linking information within and across texts. The findings expand on understandings of the mechanisms involved in constructing integrated understandings from both single texts and multiple texts, and thus inform practitioners in the field. By recognizing the critical role of students' prior knowledge in comprehending both single and multiple texts, teachers can facilitate the learning process by developing more effective teaching strategies that underlie prior knowledge in intra- and inter-textual comprehension.

Content and quantity of highlights and annotations predict learning from multiple digital texts

Learning from multiple texts is an essential yet challenging academic task. Thus, a persistent need in the field is identifying those strategies that will support students' learning from multiple texts, and facilitating their use. In this study, we adopt a quasi-experimental design to examine how the use of digital annotations, allowing undergraduates (N = 278) to identify and, potentially, link important concepts across texts, can be used to foster learning from multiple texts. Additionally, we examine students' digital highlights and annotations under four different strategy conditions, assigned to elicit different forms of processing found to be effective in prior work. These conditions included asking students to highlight and annotate (a) important or relevant information in texts, (b) connections or links across texts (i.e., intertextual reasoning condition), (c) information in texts facilitating evaluation, and (d) difficult to understand information (i.e., metacognitive monitoring condition). Some differences were found in students' rendering of highlights and annotations across strategy conditions, however, no differences in multiple text comprehension and integration performance were found across strategy conditions. Still, membership in the metacognitive monitoring strategy condition, relative to the relevance condition, as well as students’ highlighting of information supporting evaluation (i.e., source information, statistical evidence), and accessing of references during reading were predictive of multiple text comprehension and integration. Thus, this study contributes to theory by providing further evidence of strategies (e.g., metacognitive monitoring, evaluation) supportive of multiple text learning and introduces a promising means whereby such strategy use may be fostered.

The Effects of the Format and Frequency of Prompts on Source Evaluation and Multiple-Text Comprehension

This study investigated how and how often to present prompts to enhance students’ source evaluation and multiple-text comprehension. Participants were 72 undergraduates who read a set of digital texts on a controversial topic of smartphone use and mental health, wrote a justification statement for their selection of trustworthy texts, and answered open-ended comprehension questions. To explore the optimal presentation conditions, this study varied the presentation format (matrix vs. question) and frequency (once vs. repeated) of prompts. The results showed that participants benefited more from the matrix prompt than the question prompt in source evaluation and multiple-text comprehension. An interaction effect occurred only in multiple-text comprehension, indicating that repeated prompting via matrix was an optimal approach to facilitate integration of text information. In addition, participants perceived less cognitive load when matrix was presented than when questions were presented. Taken together, these results have classroom implications for instructors to consider both the format and frequency of presenting prompts to facilitate source evaluation and comprehension of multiple conflicting-view articles.

Analyzing visual attention during TAP learning and the effect of epistemic beliefs on the understanding of argument components

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to analyze visual attention during students’ learning of Toulmin’s argument pattern (TAP) and the effects of epistemic beliefs in science on the understanding of argument components. A total of 43 undergraduates were recruited through the Internet. Online questionnaires targeting beliefs about knowledge in science [Conley, A. M., Pintrich, P. R., Vekiri, I., & Harrison, D. (2004). Changes in epistemological beliefs in elementary science students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 29(2), 186–204] and beliefs about justification for knowing in science [Ferguson, L. E., & Bråten, I. (2013). Student profiles of knowledge and epistemic beliefs: Changes and relations to multiple-text comprehension. Learning and Instruction, 25, 49–61] were used to assess students’ epistemic beliefs. Identification tests for the understanding of TAP were performed before and after an argument reading treatment designed as a self-learning activity. The whole reading process was recorded by the eye-tracking system. To explore the effect of the reading treatment, participants were divided into a progress (P) group and a no-progress (NP) group based on their learning gains.The results indicated that students’ epistemic beliefs in science and their learning strategies would affect their TAP learning performance. The analyses of visual attention distribution indicated that integration information indicated by inter-scanning counts would enhance students’ learning performance. In addition, the LSA results suggested that understanding of data is of primary importance when learning TAP. Suggestions on how to guide students in learning TAP are provided based on the findings.

Examining Taiwanese university students’ multimodal multiple text comprehension: individual differences and epistemic prompting

ABSTRACT This study investigated multimodal multiple text comprehension (MMTC) among forty-eight Taiwanese university students, considering their cognitive and affective characteristics. A randomized trial with pre- and post-tests design was applied. The experiment group received a browser-embedded note-taking device along with epistemic prompting. The control group was provided with the browser-embedded note-taking device only. The results showed that situational interest, prior knowledge level, and cognitive load were associated with learners’ MMTC. Besides, prior knowledge and cognitive load moderated the effect of epistemic prompting on MMTC. Students with low prior knowledge scored significantly lower in MMTC without graphics than those with medium or high prior knowledge in the control group. Moreover, the cognitive load had a stronger negative influence on participants’ MMTC without graphics in the control group, but the negative impact was negligible on those in the experimental group. The contributions and implications of the findings were discussed regarding the MMTC intervention and instruction.

Seeking Alternatives: How Task Instruction Affects Comprehension of Texts with Conflicting Information

This study investigated whether task instruction affected comprehension of multiple conflicting-view texts after controlling for a number of individual difference variables and whether the effects of task instruction varied as a result of post-reading assessment tasks. Recruited from a First-Year Composition course, 64 participants received a task instruction that set the goal of seeking an alternative explanation and reframed argument as a process of conversation and exploration. Multiple-text comprehension was measured by a synthesis writing task and an argument writing task. The results showed that participants given the instruction outperformed participants in the control condition, as reflected in their argument writing. Among the control variables, beliefs about argumentation, need for cognition and topic interest were positively correlated with comprehension measures. These results highlight the importance of cultivating divergent thinking of multiple perspectives rather than dichotomous thinking of pros and cons. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Emotions and the Comprehension of Single versus Multiple Texts during Game-based Learning

ABSTRACT This study examined 57 learners’ emotions (i.e., joy, anger, confusion, frustration) as they engaged with scientific content while learning about microbiology with Crystal Island, a game-based learning environment (GBLE). Measures of learners’ prior knowledge, in-game text comprehension, facial expressions of emotion, and posttest reading comprehension were collected to examine the relationship between emotions and single- and multiple-text comprehension. Analyses found that both discrete and non-discrete emotions were expressed during reading and answering in-game assessments of single-text comprehension. Learners expressed greater joy during reading and greater expressions of anger, confusion, and frustration during in-game assessments. Further results found that learners who expressed a high number of different emotions throughout reading and completing in-game assessments tended to have lower in-game comprehension scores whereas a higher number of different expressed emotions while completing in-game assessments was associated with greater posttest comprehension. Finally, while increased prior knowledge was associated with higher single- and multiple-text comprehension, there was no interaction between prior knowledge and emotions on multiple-text comprehension. Overall, this study found that (1) learners often express more than one emotion during GBLE activities, (2) emotions expressed while learning with a GBLE shift across different activities, and (3) emotions are related to demonstrated comprehension, but the type of activity influences this relationship. Results from this study provide implications for how emotions can be examined as learners engage in GBLE activities as well as the design of GBLEs to support learners’ emotions accounting for different activity demands to increase comprehension of single and multiple texts.

Control and value appraisals and online multiple-text comprehension in primary school: The mediating role of boredom and the moderating role of word-reading fluency.

BackgroundOnline multiple‐text comprehension is a key skill of the 21st Century, yet the study of its relations with boredom in young students has been disregarded. Boredom is an achievement emotion expected to be predicted negatively by antecedents like control and value appraisals and to be associated to a negative performance. Notwithstanding its documented domain‐specificity, scarce attention has been paid to investigating these relations with primary‐school students in the reading domain, and specifically for online multiple‐text comprehension, and to how such relations are moderated by basic cognitive abilities.AimsConsidering separately two settings (homework, test), we studied the mediation of boredom in the relation between control‐value appraisals and online multiple‐text comprehension in primary‐school students, focusing on the moderating role of word‐reading fluency.SampleParticipants were 334 fourth and fifth graders.MethodsWe evaluated students’ reading‐related self‐efficacy and task‐value, reading‐related boredom for homework and tests, word‐reading fluency, and online multiple‐text comprehension.ResultsPath analyses revealed negative relations between control‐value appraisals and boredom for homework and tests, and between boredom and online multiple‐text comprehension for tests only. For the latter, word‐reading fluency moderated the relation between appraisals, boredom, and comprehension: Boredom negatively related to comprehension only for students with high word‐reading fluency.ConclusionsFindings are discussed focusing on antecedents of online multiple‐text comprehension as a literacy skill critical in the 21st Century. We underlined their implications for learning in general and specifically for the current educational changes due to the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Effects of L1 single-text and multiple-text comprehension on L2 integrated writing

Integrated writing entails synthesis of information and coordination of language skills. It constitutes an integral part of Hong Kong’s language curriculum at the secondary school level. This study explored the relationships between reading comprehension, including single-text and multiple-text comprehension, and integrated writing performance in Chinese (the students’ first language, L1) and English (their second language, L2). 322 students from four secondary schools participated in this study. The results of latent variable path analysis revealed that L1 single-text comprehension directly affected the ability to coordinate multiple texts in the same language. L1 reading comprehension was positively associated with L1 and L2 integrated writing. Cross-language transfer from L1 integrated writing to L2 was also observed with L1 reading comprehension playing a significant role in the transfer. The findings suggest that the ability to write from sources in L2 could capitalize on the ability that have already acquired in L1. This study contributed to existing literature by substantiating the cross-language connection between reading and writing in integrated writing. It also supports the adoption and early implementation of integrative pedagogy of reading and writing to better facilitate the development of L2 integrated writing competence.

The influence of thinking dispositions on integration and recall of multiple texts.

We investigated the association between thinking dispositions and two outcomes of multiple‐texts comprehension: integration of conflicting information in argumentative essays; and recall of inferential information as an index of deep comprehension. We focused on two thinking dispositions, need for cognition (NFC) and actively open‐minded thinking (AOT), as relevant individual differences in the processes involved in multiple‐texts comprehension. NFC is the tendency to engage in and enjoy cognitively demanding activities, whereas AOT is the tendency to rationally evaluate arguments and supporting evidence, without being influenced by biases from one's own prior beliefs and prior knowledge. 73 university students completed perceived topic knowledge, perceived exposure to argumentative writing, and perceived competence in argumentative writing, NFC and AOT questionnaires, read two contradictory texts, wrote an argumentative essay, and recalled the information read 1 month later. Argumentative essays were assessed by length and level of integration of conflicting perspective. Text recalls were assessed by number of valid inferences included. Research questions were investigated through a path analysis model. The path analysis model had a good fit. NFC was indirectly associated with argumentation quality of the essay via the essay length. AOT was directly associated with the inferences included in the recall task. The present study contributes to the literature on multiple‐texts comprehension by emphasizing the role of thinking dispositions.

Working toward a theoretical model for source comprehension in everyday discourse

ABSTRACT Comprehension substantially benefits from attending to, thinking about, and mentally representing the sources of any presented information. Such processes require mental effort and unfortunately people do not always engage in such activities. The current article presents a nascent, evolving model of discourse comprehension that formalizes mechanisms to predict and explain people’s strategic use of source information. The discrepancy-induced source comprehension (D-ISC) model and its theoretical assumptions describe the moment-by-moment cognitive processes in which readers engage when they interact with potentially contradictory or controversial messages presented by different information sources. The utility of the model is supported by evidence from a growing research base examining single- and multiple-text comprehension experiences. The D-ISC model is also useful for suggesting future directions that could help build more-nuanced understandings of the ways that diverse readers engage in sourcing activities within everyday discourse contexts.

Assessing information synthesis within and across multiple texts with verification tasks: a signal detection theory approach

To extend the existing research examining multiple text comprehension and its assessment, we developed a verification task approach to assessing of information that was explicitly and implicitly presented within and across nine texts. A nonparametric form of signal detection theory was used to analyse the performance of 47 middle school students using a rating response scale to judge the truth value of specific statements. The results showed that the four types of statements in the verification task (explicit and implicit; within- and across- text) behaved systematically: within-text explicit statements were the easiest for students to verify as true and across-text implicit statements were the most difficult. Practical implications of these results regarding assessment of complex comprehension processes are discussed.

How to understand what you don't believe: Metacognitive training prevents belief-biases in multiple text comprehension

Prior beliefs often bias the comprehension of multiple science-related texts such that belief-consistent texts are better comprehended compared to belief-inconsistent texts (text-belief consistency effect). Two experiments were conducted to investigate whether a metacognitive strategy training focusing on belief-biasing validation processes can reduce the text-belief consistency effect in multiple text comprehension. Participants in the control condition received the PQ4R training as a well-situated and effective reading skill training that increases receptive elaborative processing. In Experiment 1 (n = 39) and Experiment 2 (n = 53) participants receiving a metacognitive strategy training achieved a similar level of comprehension of belief-consistent and belief-inconsistent texts, whereas a text-belief consistency effect was found in the PQ4R condition. These results indicate that a training focusing on belief-biasing validation processes prepare readers for the challenges to comprehend belief-relevant multiple texts, whereas strategies that foster receptive processing of information are not sufficient in the context of controversially discussed topics.

Text-belief consistency effect in adolescents´ comprehension of multiple documents from the Web (El efecto de consistencia en la comprensión lectora de los adolescentes de documentos múltiples provenientes de Internet)

ABSTRACTReaders often comprehend belief-consistent information from multiple texts better compared with belief-inconsistent information (text-belief consistency effect). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether adolescents’ comprehension of multiple texts is similarly impacted by their beliefs. Moreover, readers’ prior knowledge and an alternating (compared with a blocked) mode of presenting multiple texts were expected to attenuate the text-belief consistency effect. High school students read two belief-consistent and two belief-inconsistent texts on one of two scientific issues in different modes of presentation (blocked vs. alternating). A recognition task was used to assess situation model strength for each text, and prior beliefs and prior knowledge were measured before the main experiment. As expected, in the blocked mode of presentation high school students had a stronger situation model for belief-consistent texts. In the alternating mode of presentation, participants had similar situation model strengths for the different texts. Moreover, high-knowledge participants experienced a text-belief consistency effect, whereas low-knowledge participants had weaker and similar situation models for the texts.

Advanced theory of mind uniquely contributes to children’s multiple-text comprehension

This study examined the contribution of advanced theory of mind (AToM), operationalized as second- or higher-order recursive mentalistic reasoning, to multiple-text comprehension in fourth and fifth graders (N = 184). The role of AToM was analyzed by taking into account children’s individual characteristics (i.e., age, gender, prior topic knowledge, word reading fluency, vocabulary knowledge, and single-text comprehension) and task features (i.e., contrast between positions on the topic of two sets of texts). Mixed models analysis revealed that AToM uniquely contributed to comprehension of multiple texts over and above the individual and task variables. In addition, the contribution of AToM to the comprehension of multiple texts did not significantly differ for the two tasks despite differences in contrast between positions on the topic. Results indicate that children’s ability to consider different perspectives and mental states is a relevant unique predictor of multiple-text comprehension.

Reading Comprehension: Theories and Strategies Toward an Effective Reading Instruction

Comprehension is a vital component in the reading process and is associated with a learner’s success in school, and even in life. However, research shows that many students are struggling to comprehend what they are reading, especially texts that require higher order thinking skills. Several factors could be ascribed to this problem and one of them is the insufficiency of teachers in terms of pedagogical knowledge. Many of them felt unprepared to teach reading skills and strategies; they focused more on assessing students’ reading comprehension rather than teaching them how to comprehend better. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to present some of the theories that explain how reading comprehension occurs. It also reviews the different researches conducted on teaching reading comprehension strategies specifically on how to comprehend single and multiple texts. Further, this paper argues that it is imperative for reading teachers (including content area teachers) to have operational knowledge on the different strategies in teaching reading comprehension and how to strategically apply these in their instruction, particularly when reading multiple texts to improve their students’ critical thinking skills. Keywords : Reading comprehension, strategies, theories, reading instruction, single and multiple texts comprehension DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-13-12 Publication date :May 31 st 2019

Effects of intertextual processing on L2 integrated writing

This study explored the effects of intertextual processing on integrated writing. A strategy inventory for discourse synthesis, an intertextual inference verification task examining multiple-text comprehension in Chinese (the students’ first language, L1) and English (their second language, L2) and integrated writing tasks in both L1 and L2 were administered to students in four secondary schools in Hong Kong. The results of structural equation modelling analyses showed that discourse synthesis strategies and multiple-text comprehension were significant predictors of integrated writing performance in both L1 and L2 settings. Transferability of integrated writing competence and multiple-text comprehension between the L1 and L2 was also observed, substantiating the significance of L1 integrated writing and multiple-text comprehension to the development of L2 integrated writing. This study thus helps to establish a causal relationship between discourse synthesis, multiple-text comprehension, and integrated writing, an area that has been neglected in prior research. Several theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.

Fostering teenagers' assessment of information reliability: Effects of a classroom intervention focused on critical source dimensions

Increased amounts of information available from the Internet have triggered new demands for students to evaluate information quality. Our study presents an instructional intervention aimed at fostering ninth grade students' critical evaluation of source reliability. The intervention was grounded into theories of multiple text comprehension and used an analytic framework that defines the core source dimensions of author position (competence), author motivation (intention), and media quality (pre-publication validation). Compared to controls, trained students 1) reduced the score assigned to links containing less reliable information in the three critical source dimensions (knowledge application task), as well as 2) increased the number of references made to a more reliable source (e.g., “scientific journal”) and decreased references made to a less reliable source (e.g., “personal blog”), in a task presenting contradictory information across texts (transfer task). Nonetheless, the intervention outcomes varied according to the type of source evaluation question. We discuss the beneficial effects of implementing classroom intervention on sourcing skills as a means to improve teenagers’ critical thinking when comprehending multiple documents.