Automated and controlled processes in comprehending multiple documents

Abstract

The study investigates automated and controlled cognitive processes that occur when university students read multiple documents (MDs). We examined data of 401 students dealing with two MD sets in a digital environment.Performance was assessed through several comprehension questions. Recorded log data gave indications about students' time allocation, corroboration, and sourcing. Independent measures were used for reading speed to tap the effects of automatic processing and for working memory and single-text reading comprehension to tap effects of controlled processing, with working memory considered the mental capacity for performing controlled processing. We found that faster readers completed the MD tasks faster and showed more corroboration behavior. At the same time, students skilled in comprehension allocated more time to processing MD tasks and were more likely to show MD-specific behaviors of corroboration and sourcing. Students' success in MD tasks was predicted by reading speed and working memory, with the effect of working memory being mediated by single-text comprehension. Behavioral indicators contributed independently in predicting students' MD comprehension. Results suggest that reading MDs resembles a problem-solving situation where students need to engage in controlled, non-routine processing to build up a comprehensive representation of MDs and benefit from highly automated, lower-level reading processes.

Reading for university or for myself? Effects of context and beliefs about science on college students’ document selection.

“…To our knowledge, the present results are the first to show that both implicit and explicit beliefs about science contribute to how readers approach multiple documents about science. Thus, it adds to the growing literature on individual differences that play a role for multiple document comprehension, such as epistemic beliefs, prior topic beliefs, interest, working memory capacity, or (single text) reading skills (e.g., Barzilai & Strømsø, 2018; Hahnel et al, 2021; List, 2021; Mahlow et al, 2020; Schoor et al, 2020).…”

The relationship between problem‐solving behaviour and performance – Analysing tool use and information retrieval in a computer‐based office simulation

“…Deciding which information is relevant and which is irrelevant in the given problem space and deciding on the procedure and duration they want to engage with given materials (Azevedo, 2005;Behrens et al, 2012;Kostons et al, 2012) is a challenging task. Similar challenges are discussed in research on 'Information retrieval' and 'Multiple Document Comprehension (MDC)' (Hahnel et al, 2021;Mahlow et al, 2020).…”

Pisa 2022

“…Abschnitt 6.2), eine zentrale Voraussetzung dar (z. B. Philipp, 2018) und unterstützen die Integration von Information über multiple Textquellen hinweg (Hahnel et al, 2021).…”