Epistemic processing of multiple science texts on the Internet

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Students in secondary education, university students, and lay persons who want to learn more about a scientific topic usually read multiple texts from different sources and of varying quality (for example, Wikipedia entries, online media, scientific journals, scientists' web pages, or science blogs). More often than not these texts communicate conflicting information, for example when the texts represent opposing stances in a scientific controversy. This research project investigates how learners comprehend conflicting information in science-related texts and construct mental representations of controversial scientific issues. The first phase of the project was devoted to developing and testing a theoretical model which distinguishes a shallow and an elaborative way of how conflicting information from multiple science-related texts is processed epistemically. This model allows predictions concerning effects of situational and learner-based conditions on cognitive processes and the resulting mental representations in informal learning with multiple texts. So far, these predictions were tested in nine consecutive experiments. Whereas shallow processing seems to cause a one-sided mental representation which is biased towards learners' initial beliefs, elaborative epistemic processing enables learners to construct a balanced and rich mental representation of sicentific controversies. The proposed research for the upcoming project phase concentrates on (1) characteristics of a motivated epistemic processing of scientific controversies, (2) a clarification of the causal role of epistemic monitoring in learning with conflicting information, and (2) the development of effective but economical interventions to foster learning with multiple texts on controversial scientific issues. To this end, four comprehensive experiments are proposed, which are based on different experimental paradigms and methods (among others, eye tracking during reading, reaction time experiments, and training experiments).