The authors asked students to read a passage and then to answer a question about it. They’re offered the opportunity to re-read if they think their answer might be wrong. People usually use that option appropriately when the questions are about factual details, but rarely choose to look back for thematic questions, even when they’re wrong. When had the wrong answer and chose to look back, they only ended up with the correct answer half the time. In a second experiment, the authors ask readers to rate their confidence (instead of offering a lookback choice) and find that readers had high confidence in most answers, even when they’re wrong. The conclusion is that people “may often be unaware of gross comprehension problems.” Students were slightly more aware of their comprehension via short-answer questions than via multiple choice.
Q. Main finding?
A. In challenging, “inconsiderate” texts, readers have inappropriately high confidence in their performance on thematic Adjunct questions (as measured via survey and via opportunity to re-read).
Q. Why can’t the finding be explained just by lack of motivation?
A. Students did usually choose to re-read when their answers to factual questions were wrong; and in the second experiment, their self-reported confidence levels were highly inflated.
Q. What do the authors mean by an “inconsiderate” text?
A. Not strongly structured, doesn’t include embedded summaries, repetition or obvious topic statements.
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