This study used think-aloud methodology to explore undergraduates' spontaneous attention to and use of source information while reading six documents that presented conflicting views on a controversial social scientific issue in a Google-like environment. Results showed that students explicitly and implicitly paid attention to sources of documents…

One of the major challenges of a knowledge society is that students as well as other citizens must learn to understand and integrate information from multiple textual sources. Still, task and reader characteristics that may facilitate or constrain such intertextual processes are not well understood by researchers. In this study, we compare the…

Using a sample of 282 Norwegian upper secondary students, we examined whether two dimensions of topic-specific epistemic beliefs, concerning the certainty of knowledge and the justification for knowing, predicted students' understanding of seven texts representing partly conflicting views on climate change. Text comprehension was measured at three…

In a sample of 135 Norwegian education undergraduates, we examined the effects of topic-specific epistemic beliefs concerning the simplicity and source of knowledge on deep-level understanding of multiple expository texts about the same topic--climate change. The results showed that students holding sophisticated simplicity beliefs, viewing…

Analyzes think-aloud protocols generated during reading to locate sources referred to when students made links reaching beyond what they read. Finds proportion of links to sources located within the text decreased and proportion of links outside the context increased over time. Notes students who increased use of sources located outside the task…