LEARNING FROM TEXTS - EFFECTS OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND TEXT COHERENCE

Two experiments, theoretically motivated by the construction-integrati on model of comprehension (W. Kintsch, 1988), investigated effects of prior knowledge on learning from high- and low-coherence history texts . In Experiment 1, participants' comprehension was examined through fr ee recall, multiple-choice questions, and a keyword sorting task. An a dvantage was found for the high-coherence text on recall and multiple- choice questions. However, high-knowledge readers performed better on the sorting task after reading the low-coherence text. In Experiment 2 , participants' comprehension was examined through open-ended question s and the sorting task both immediately and after a 1-week delay. Litt le effect of delay was found, and the previous sorting task results fa iled to replicate. As predicted, high-knowledge readers performed bett er on the open-ended questions after reading the low-coherence text. R eading times from both experiments indicated that the low-coherence te xt requires more inference processes. These inferences are more likely to be successful and useful for high-knowledge readers.