Authors:
Jean-François Rouet, Gastón Saux, Christine Ros, Marc Stadtler, Nicolas Vibert, M. Anne Britt
Abstract:
Fil: Rouet, Jean-François. University of Poitiers; Francia Fil: Rouet, Jean-François. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage; Francia Fil: Saux, Gastón. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Piscología y Psicopedagogía; Argentina Fil: Saux, Gastón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Ros, Christine. University of Poitiers; Francia Fil: Ros, Christine. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage; Francia Fil: Stadtler, Marc. University of Bochum. Inst (...)
Fil: Rouet, Jean-François. University of Poitiers; Francia Fil: Rouet, Jean-François. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage; Francia Fil: Saux, Gastón. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Piscología y Psicopedagogía; Argentina Fil: Saux, Gastón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Ros, Christine. University of Poitiers; Francia Fil: Ros, Christine. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage; Francia Fil: Stadtler, Marc. University of Bochum. Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft; Alemania Fil: Vibert, Nicolás. University of Poitiers; Francia Fil: Vibert, Nicolás. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage; Francia Fil: Britt, Anne M. Northern Illinois University. Department of Psychology; Estados Unidos Abstract: Text comprehension involves the ability to understand how texts relate to the situation they describe and to each other (i.e., a Document model; Perfetti, Rouet, & Britt, 1999). Research into Document models has emphasized the role of information sources in structuring readers' mental models of situations. The present paper reviews research on source comprehension and examines new hypotheses regarding source encoding during text comprehension. Two experiments examined college students’ evaluation and recognition of two embedded sources as a function of the consistency of their statements (Experiments 1 and 2) and the demands of the reading task (Experiment 2). Sources were introduced either with a knowledge feature (e.g., how the source knew what they knew) or a control feature. Readers were more likely to select the knowledgeable source as more competent and to justify their selection by referring to the knowledge feature (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 found that readers’ preference for knowledgeable sources was stronger when the content statements were discrepant. Preference for knowledgeable sources was also stronger when the task focused on source knowledge, as compared to a control evaluation task or a baseline reading task. The source knowledge evaluation task distinctively enhanced participants' integration of the source designations with their respective statements, as compared to the control and baseline conditions. Results are discussed in light of current theories of single and multiple document comprehension.
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