Naumann, J., Richter, T., Flender, J., Christmann, U., & Groeben, N. (2007). Signaling in expository hypertexts compensates for deficits in reading skill. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(4), 791-807.

Naumann, J.; Richter, T.; Flender, J.; Christmann, U.; Groeben, N.

2007

Naumann, J., Richter, T., Flender, J., Christmann, U., & Groeben, N. (2007). Signaling in expository hypertexts compensates for deficits in reading skill. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(4), 791-807.

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Expository hypertexts may contain specific types of signals such as navigable topical overviews and hyperlinks that map conceptual relationships between text contents. Two experiments with German university students (N = 130, 75% female, mean age 25 years) were conducted to test the hypothesis that hypertext-specific signals particularly support learners with badly routinized reading skills in organizing and integrating complex learning materials. The experiments were based on naturalistic texts and essay-writing tasks typical for exam preparation. Learning outcomes were measured by characteristics of participants' essays (amount of knowledge, knowledge focusing, knowledge integration). In both experiments, a hypertext with a high amount of signaling yielded better learning outcomes than did a linear text for readers with a low level of skill, whereas there were no differences for readers with a high level of skill. In Experiment 2, the same interaction pattern was found for hypertext with a high versus a low amount of hypertext-specific signals. Moreover, a lack of signals led to less efficient navigation behavior. These results demonstrate that hypertexts equipped with hypertext-specific signals may compensate for deficits in reading skill.

For learners with highly routinized reading comprehension processes, it did not make a difference whether they learned with a linear text or a hypertext containing signals. Experiment 2 demonstrated that these compensatory effects were indeed due to the presence of hypertext-specific signals: In learning with a hypertext from which these signals were removed, reading skill had positive effects on learning outcomes that paralleled the effects of reading skill in learning with a linear text. Moreover, the navigational data obtained in Experiment 2 provide some on-line evidence that the presence of signals in a hypertext enables learners to select and organize contents more efficiently. Without the support provided by these signals, learners had to rely on less efficient strategies such as the trial-and-error scanning of pages for relevant contents. These results are consistent with the ideas that signals facilitate comprehension processes directed at establishing the macrostructure of a text (van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983) and that they promote the organization, selection, and integration of the to-be-learned information.

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