From covert processes to overt outcomes of refutation text reading: The interplay of science text structure and working memory through eye fixations

This study extends current research on the refutation text effect by investigating it in learners with different levels of working memory capacity. The purpose is to outline the link between on-line processes, revealed by eye-fixation indices, and off-line outcomes in these learners. In science education, unlike a standard text, a refutation text acknowledges readers’ alternative conceptions about a topic, refutes them, and presents scientific conceptions as viable alternatives. Lower and higher memory span university students with alternative conceptions about the topic read either a refutation or a non-refutation text about tides. Off-line measures of learning revealed that both groups of refutation text readers attained higher knowledge gains. During the reading process, refutation text readers fixated for longer the refutation segments while reading the parts presenting the scientific information (look-froms). Non-refutation text readers looked back to the informational parts for longer. Look-froms (positively) and reading time (negatively) predicted learning from refutation text, indicating that the quality, not quantity, of reading was related to it. In contrast, learning from non-refutation text was predicted only by working memory capacity. The refutation effect is discussed and educational implications are drawn

Reading information about a scientific phenomenon on webpages varying for reliability: An eye-movement analysis

Students search the Web every day for many purposes, one of which is to search information for academic assignments. Given the huge amount of easily accessible online information, they are required to develop new reading skills and become more able to effectively evaluate the reliability of web sources. This study investigates the distribution of their visual attention while reading webpages using eye-tracking methodology. The aim was to examine whether information received differential attention depending on the reliability of the source and whether the individual characteristics of topic-specific prior knowledge and epistemic beliefs moderated their visual behavior during reading. Factual knowledge after reading was also examined. Forty-nine university students read four webpages providing verbal and graphical information about the universal validity of the central dogma of molecular biology, which varied for reliability. Indices of first-pass and second pass reading or inspection were used to trace the processing of information within each page. Findings revealed that readers made an implicit source evaluation as they spent a longer time inspecting the pictures about the more and less familiar information within the most reliable source during the immediate, more automatic, processing. In addition, topic-specific epistemic beliefs moderated this processing as readers with more availing convictions about knowledge attended more the information provided in pages that required more discernment. Moreover, readers increased their factual knowledge of the topic after reading. Educational implications are outlined

An eye-tracking study of learning from science text with concrete and abstract illustrations.

This study investigated both the online process of reading, and offline learning from an illustrated science text. We examined the effects of using a concrete or abstract picture to illustrate a text and adopted eye-tracking methodology to trace text and picture processing. Fifty-nine 11th graders were randomly assigned to three reading conditions: text only, text with a concrete illustration, and text with an abstract illustration in a pretest, immediate, and delayed posttest design. Results showed that the text illustrated by either the concrete or the abstract picture led to better learning than the text alone. Eye-fixation data revealed that the abstract illustration promoted more efficient processing of the text. Analyses of the gaze shifts between the two types of external representation indicated that the readers of the text with the abstract illustration made a greater effort to integrate verbal and pictorial information. Furthermore, relations between online and offline measures emerged

Learning from Text with Instructional Pictures: Tracing Cognitive Processing through Eye Movements

This study first investigated whether an illustrated text would be more effective than a non-illustrated text in promoting a better learning performance. Secondly, it examined whether reading a text with a schematic picture or a text with a detailed picture would induce different cognitive processing, as revealed by eye movements, and learning outcomes. As concerns the cognitive processing during reading, two fine-grained indices of eye movements were computed and used in the analyses: look-from fixation time to trace the integration of verbal and pictorial information, and look-back fixation time to examine the extent to which a particular area of interest was reinspected. Individual differences, such as prior-knowledge, reading comprehension, verbal and visuo-spatial working memory, and spatial ability, were also considered. Sixty-five eighth graders were involved in a pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest design. They were randomly assigned to a different reading condition. Findings revealed that, overall, an illustrated text was more effective in enhancing readers\u2019 learning performance compared to a non-illustrated text. Furthermore, readers of the text with the detailed picture outperformed readers of the text with the schematic picture at the immediate but not delayed posttest. Eye-movement analyses revealed that readers of the text with a schematic picture went further a simple rereading of some parts of the materials, attempting more to integrate verbal and pictorial information. The differential roles played by a schematic vs. a detailed picture in the cognitive processing of an illustrated scientific text are discussed