Prompting Teenagers to Justify Their Position Toward Conflicting Claims Improves Their Assessment of Source Information

• In Event: Cognitive Processes in Reading Comprehension

Abstract

We examined the assumption that students' strategies when studying multiple documents depends on their understanding of task requirements. Seventh and Ninth graders read short stories involving two sources which provided consistent or discrepant claims about a factual situation. Then they answered a question about the critical fact. The experimental group received a short instruction on the topic of knowledge justification. After a one-week delay, students received a new set of stories. Students in the experimental group cited more sources than those in the control group. We conclude that students' explicit consideration of source information when completing multiple document tasks depends on their perception of what makes a good answer (in this case, justifying one's response to a question).

Authors

• Guillaume de Pereyra

• Marc Stadtler, University of Münster

• Anna Potocki, University of Poitiers

• Johanna Paul, University of Muenster

• Mônica Macedo-Rouet, University of Paris 8

• Lalo Salmeron, University of Valencia

• Anne Britt, Northern Illinois University

• Jean-Francois Rouet, CNRS and University of Poitiers