Spooren, W., Mulder, M., & Hoeken, H. (1998). The role of interest and text structure in professional reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 21(2), 109-120.

Spooren, W.; Mulder, M.; Hoeken, H.

1998

Spooren, W., Mulder, M., & Hoeken, H. (1998). The role of interest and text structure in professional reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 21(2), 109-120.

studie 3

Investigated whether there is evidence for S. Hidi & W. Baird's (1986) suggestion that the effects of text structure on reading are artefacts. They argue that professional readers (e.g., students) mainly use interest instead of structure as their guide for attention and learning. In 3 related experiments using Dutch instructional texts both interest and text structure were manipulated as within-item factors, and on-line as well as off-line methods were used to measure effects on the reading process and product. In each experiment, reading time on the target sentence as well as its recognition were measured. In the second experiment, secondary task reaction times were employed to investigate whether interest or structure influenced the intensity of the reading process apart from its length. Results do not support Hidi & Baird's hypothesis. Instead, findings suggest that students learn better from texts that are well structured, regardless of the interest of the text or its topic.

In the third experiment the manipulation of interest was even more drastic, consisting of a difference of content rather than of style. The result pattern was somewhat different, but again no interaction was found. The only effects were effects of text structure (higher recognition scores for Problem-Solution structures). This deviating result pattern may be attributed to the different way in which the text structure was manipulated.

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