In many situations, readers are asked to learn from multiple documents. Many studies have found that evaluating the trustworthiness and usefulness of document sources is an important skill in such learning situations. There has been, however, no direct evidence that attending to source information helps readers learn from and interpret a…

This study examined how text features (i.e., cohesion) and individual differences (i.e., reading skill and prior knowledge) contribute to biology text comprehension. College students with low and high levels of biology knowledge read two biology texts, one of which was high in cohesion and the other low in cohesion. The two groups were similar in…

Previous research has shown that encouraging learners to explain material to themselves as they study can increase their understanding. Furthermore, different types of material (e.g. text or diagrams) influence learners' self-explanation behaviour. This study explores whether the coherence of text impacts upon the self-explanation effect.…