Seeing the Source, Trusting the Source: What Helps Children Navigate Conflicting Texts?

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Thursday 2:15pm
  In Poster Session: Emotion, Identity, and Social Contexts in Learning

Abstract

We investigated how source awareness, credibility evaluation abilities, and prior topic beliefs influence Chinese children’s integration of conflicting texts. In Study 1 (N = 228), upper-elementary students read contradictory texts and wrote essays scored for position anchoring, source-driven evidence, and conflict integration, showing grade-related differences. In Study 2 (N = 224), source awareness was experimentally manipulated. Results showed source-driven evidence was positively predicted by credibility evaluation abilities only when source awareness was activated. Conflict integration was unrelated to these factors but negatively predicted by belief strength. These findings suggest that metacognitive and evaluative abilities jointly support source-based reasoning, while strong prior beliefs may hinder reconciliation of conflicting perspectives during multiple-text integration.

Authors

• Haolan Wang, Beijing Normal University

• Xinchun Wu, Beijing Normal University