Coherence textual changes improve tenth graders' main-idea performance on a scientific text¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 1998 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Students reading the coherence version outperformed those reading the original version on the main-ideas test, with coherence the only reliable main effect. → Vidal-Abarca 1998

Evidence¶

Vidal-Abarca 1998¶

Vidal-Abarca, E., & Sanjosé, V. (1998). Levels of comprehension of scientific prose: The role of text variables. Learning and Instruction, 8(3), 215-233. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959475297000200

q2 · i? · causal · r2

Experiment with 67 tenth graders randomly assigned to four text versions; 2x2 ANCOVA (coherence: low, high x linking: present, absent) with prior knowledge as covariate on the main-ideas test. The article reports "Only themaineffectofcoherencewasreliable, F(1,62)=17.010, MSE=20.023, p<.001".

"Only themaineffectofcoherencewasreliable, F(1,62)=17.010, MSE=20.023, p<.001.Multiple contrastsbetweenmeansshowedthatthecoherenceversionhadsignificantadvantagesover theoriginal,butnotoverthelinkingversion."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Neither textual change significantly improves recall of low-level idea units, contradicting the recall hypothesis — related
• The revised coherence version measurably increased textual coherence on two quantitative indices — related
• Each kind of textual change selectively aids recall of the idea units it itself highlights — related
• Problem-solving performance improves significantly only when coherence and linking changes are combined, showing the predicted interaction — related