Abstract

The aim of the present study
was to examine effects of relevance instructions and elaborative
interrogation on the processing of and memory for expository texts. Eye
movements of 132 undergraduate students were tracked while they read
expository texts. After reading each text, they produced an oral
summary. Participants were divided into four experimental conditions
that differed by the presence or absence of the why question and the
specific or general relevance instruction they received. Results showed
that readers who received the why question embedded in the texts and
also received the specific instruction of answering the question
demonstrated more strategic reading, as reflected in their first-pass
and look-back reading times and also in their better recall of
question-relevant information. These results can be readily applied to
real-life learning contexts, as they suggest that employing specific
relevance instructions in combination with elaborative interrogation may
elicit more efficient and strategic reading.