Key Takeaways from the Project
Research Question
What is the effect of source information and sourcing instructions on comprehension of multiple educational psychology texts?
Measures
Postsecondary students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and read abstracts of papers.
- source + instructions: sources are given, as are instructions to pay attention to them
- source-only: sources are given
- no-source (control): no sources were given, only abstracts.
Dependent variables:
- Memory for information: recall + recognition tasks (same day AND 1 week later)
- Integration of information across texts: short essay
Results
- No differences were found in memory for information measures between conditions.
- Coding of short essay responses is underway.
Discussion
- How to code the short essay responses?
- How to measure integration?
- Are there other characteristics of the responses that would be important to measure/evaluate? (e.g. total word counts, proportion of on task vs off task content)
- Should ‘idea units’ be weighted by importance?
Video
Click below to view the discussion on Youtube.