Swept Away Unless in Need for Cognition: Informative Narratives Affect Text Comprehension and Metacomprehension Accuracy

• In Event: Advances in Understanding Metacomprehension Accuracy of Expository Text

Abstract

Objectives: Informative narratives are texts that present to-be-learned information (e.g., about blood circulation) embedded in a narrative plotline (e.g., a fictional character travels through a body). Because they are assumed to enhance understanding, they are popular for learners of different ages. However, previous research questions the benefits of informative narratives for text comprehension. We argue that they are also detrimental to metacomprehension accuracy and that this inaccuracy also depends on readers’ individual factors.

Theory: Although informative narratives are widely assumed to enhance understanding, the few existing studies indicate that they are not or even less useful for text comprehension compared with expository texts (Hartley, 1986; Wolfe & Mienko, 2007). This detrimental effect partly results from the fact that informative narratives induce readers to use surface reading strategies and, hence, to integrate text information insufficiently (Wolfe & Woodwyk, 2010). Consequently, given that an insufficiently integrated mental text representations lead to overestimations of comprehension, we assumed that informative narratives result in more overestimations than expository texts. In addition, based on findings about factors that generally foster the immersion into narratives (Appel & Richter, 2010), metacomprehension accuracy of informative narratives might also depend on the extent to which readers are transported into the narrative plotline and their need for cognition.

Method: We conducted an experiment (N = 51 university students) with text type as independent variable: Each participant read either two informative narratives or two expository texts that were equal regarding conceptual information and sequence of information. Dependent variables were text comprehension (i.e., factual and inference questions) and metacomprehension accuracy (i.e., signed difference between prospective comprehension judgments and performance). Additionally, we measured participants’ prior knowledge, need for cognition, as well as transportation (i.e., extent of being immersed) into the informative narrative and, equivalently, involvement with the expository text.

Results: The informative narrative resulted in significantly lower performance on the factual questions than the expository text. No significant effect occurred for performance on the inference questions. Furthermore, the informative narrative led to more overestimation of factual comprehension and the expository text in more underestimation. Additionally, both text types resulted in overestimations of the inference questions. However, moderated mediation analyses revealed that overestimations regarding factual and inference questions after reading an informative narrative were mediated by participants’ transportation into the narrative but only for readers with lower need for cognition. Conversely, readers with higher need for cognition experienced less transportation and thus provided less overconfident judgments. In contrast, for the expository text, participants with higher need for cognition were more involved with the text and thus showed less underestimation of factual comprehension but also more overestimation of comprehension regarding inference questions.

Significance: This study showed that informative narratives impaired learning because they produced lower comprehension and more overestimations of factual comprehension. This, however, was not true for participants with higher need for cognition who, therefore, were less transported into the narrative plotline – which counteracts the aims of informative narratives.

Authors

• Stefanie Golke, University of Freiburg

• Joerg Wittwer, University of Freiburg