Interpreting popular reports of science: what happens when the reader's world meets the world on paper?

Ninety-one senior high school students were asked to read four popular repo rts of science. These students were nearing completion of on average four s enior high school science courses either in biology, chemistry, or physics, or some combination. The reports were chosen from recent issues of a popul ar science magazine, a nonscience magazine, and newspaper. Students were as ked before reading each report to answer a question about their background beliefs on thr topic. After reading each report, they were asked whether th ey were more certain, less certain, or equally certain of their background beliefs, and what had made up their minds. There was a lack of systematic r elationship between students' degree of certainty in their beliefs, and the support that the reports offer for those beliefs, because students tended not to integrate well their background beliefs and text information. Appare ntly, the students failed to distinguish between their conclusions and the reasons they offered for them.