Cognitive Affective Engagement Model of Multiple Source Use

• In Event: 49.029 - Competing and Complementary Models of Multiple Source Use: Theoretical and Empirical Advancements

Abstract

Purpose

We have three goals: (a) introducing the Cognitive Affective Engagement Model (CAEM) of multiple source use (MSU); (b) considering the CAEM in relation to other models of MSU; and, (c) presenting data in support of a learner-driven understanding of MSU, as reflected in the CAEM.

Theoretical Frame

According to the CAEM, MSU unfolds in three stages: situation definition, multiple text engagement, and task assimilation. Stage one, situation definition, consists of an interactional process wherein given task and contextual parameters are understood and interpreted by the learner. Learners’ interpretation of task and context is based on their prior knowledge, attitudes, and interest as well as on their task-specific efficacy and goals. Learners do not directly assume a given task (Rouet, 2006), rather the task learners engage in is a reconceptualization of given task demands based on individual and situational factors.

Stage two, multiple text engagement, identifies four distinct profiles or styles of engagement with multiple sources. Each engagement profile is defined by the extent to which learners are cognitively and affectively/motivationally engaged during source use. Students may be (a) resolution-driven, seeking to minimally satisfy task demands but low in both cognitive and motivational engagement, (b) cognitively-driven, critical and evaluative in their source use, but without great interest or personal investment in the result, (c) affectively-driven, motivated source users, personally invested in the outcome, but not evaluative of texts encountered, or (d) critical-engaged, both critically analytic and interested and motivated in their MSU.

Stage three, task assimilation, is a negotiation between learners’ understood task demands and the outcomes of their source use process. It may be that learners have only engaged in MSU to satisfy task demands and there is a direct correspondence between information gained from source use and learners’ task goals. Alternately, information gained from source use may require translation to meet task demands.

Data Sources and Results

Data from cluster analysis support the existence of four distinct multiple source use profiles consistent with the CAEM (List, Grossnickle, & Alexander, 2014). Profiles are distinguished by time on texts and by source evaluations. Think-aloud data from a follow-up study will be presented, with strategic differences identified between students classified into the four CAEM profiles.

Patterns identified in the MSU literature can be conceptualized through the CAEM. For example, case building, wherein those with strong beliefs are limited in critically evaluating attitude-consistent arguments, may describe affectively-driven source users (Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979; Nickerson, 1998). Resolution-driven source users have alternately been referred to as engaged in information management, whereas students in the critically-engaged profile have been described as knowledge building (Alexander & DRLRL, 2010).

Scholarly Contributions

The CAEM is distinct from extant models of MSU in several ways. First, it emphasizes the distinction between the task given, the task understood, and the task adopted by learners. Further, the CAEM defines MSU not solely by source use behaviors manifest but also by drives of learner engagement. Finally, it distinguishes the cognitive and motivational components of text engagement, identifying distinct approaches to MSU.

Authors

• Alexandra List, The Pennsylvania State University

• Patricia A. Alexander, University of Maryland - College Park