Memory for Textual Conflicts Predicts Sourcing When Adolescents Read Multiple Expository Texts

Abstract

This study investigated whether memory for conflicting information predicted mental representation of source-content links (i.e., who said what) in a sample of 86 Norwegian adolescent readers. Participants read four texts presenting conflicting claims about sun exposure and health. With differences in gender, prior knowledge, and interest controlled for, and with self-reported critical reading strategies also included in a multiple regression analysis, it was found that the better participants remembered that the texts presented conflicting claims on the issue, the more likely they were to include source-content links in their mental representations of the texts.

Funding

The research reported in this article was funded by grant 237981/H20 from the Research Council of Norway to Ivar Bråten and Helge I. Strømsø.

Notes

1. In Norway, compulsory primary and lower secondary schooling begins at age six and lasts for 10 years. Upper secondary education is non-compulsory and lasts for three years.

2. The reason our interest measure targeted interest and engagement in health issues in general is that we assumed participants would be more likely to provide valid and reliable responses to statements regarding that issue than to statements regarding the more specific issue of sun exposure and health.