SERP-based document-selection task with scientific-expertise and personal-experiences sources¶

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The core experimental material was a simulated Google search result list for each of four target topics (health, sports, or education domains), from which participants ticked checkboxes for documents to read further. Per the article, "Four of the relevant documents had a source with scientific expertise (e.g., a professor of a relevant field), while another four had a source with personal experiences (e.g., the head of a support group)", plus two irrelevant titles to conceal the study's intent; SERP order, title-source pairings, and topic order were counterbalanced. The task question (write an overview vs. write an opinion) was manipulated independently from the external context.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

Topics must be addressable by both scientific studies and personal experiences
Participants must encode the external context scenario before selecting

Constraints¶

Sources and titles were fictitious, created only for the experiment

Target Learners¶

university students from a German university, mainly teacher education and social science enrollees

Learning Goals¶

document selection and source evaluation for further reading about science

Claims¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

Cornelia Schoor, Jean-François Rouet, and M. Anne Britt (2024). Reading for University or for Myself? Effects of Context and Beliefs about Science on College Students' Document Selection. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116 (3), pp.317-345. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000849

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`design`
`id`	`serp-document-selection-task-expertise-manipulation`
`title`	`SERP-based document-selection task with scientific-expertise and personal-experiences sources`
`description`	`The core experimental material was a simulated Google search result list for each of four target topics (health, sports, or education domains), from which participants ticked checkboxes for documents to read further.`
`status`	`review`
`generated`	by `process:settle-candidates` on `2026-10-25`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `cornelia-schoor-2024`

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