The Multiple Sources of Coherence: How Prompt Timing Influences Students’ Multiple Documents Sourcing Behaviors

• In Event: The Dynamics of Cognition and Motivation in Reading, Recall, and Comprehension

Abstract

We examined the effect of prompt order (either before or after reading) on the degree to which students (n=94) integrated content from four outside sources in a source-based essay. Additionally, we investigated the relationship between sourcing behaviors (number of source clicks, time spent writing), NLP-derived source overlap indices (content types from either all, some, none, or all 4 sources), and expert-rated source integration scores. Results suggest that prompt order indeed matters—those who saw the prompt before reading were able to more fully integrate the sources and needed to return back to the source texts less often while writing. Visualizations may aid in further exploration of the relationships between source overlap indices and integration scores.

Authors

• Lauren Flynn, University of Minnesota

• Kathryn S. McCarthy, Georgia State University

• Joseph Magliano, Georgia State University

• Danielle S. McNamara, Arizona State University

• Laura Allen, University of Minnesota