TY - GEN
T1 - Reading time as evidence for mental models in understanding physics
AU - Brookes, David T.
AU - Mestre, José
AU - Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A.L.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - We present results of a reading study that show the usefulness of probing physics students' cognitive processing by measuring reading time. According to contemporary discourse theory, when people read a text, a network of associated inferences is activated to create a mental model. If the reader encounters an idea in the text that conflicts with existing knowledge, the construction of a coherent mental model is disrupted and reading times are prolonged, as measured using a simple self-paced reading paradigm. We used this effect to study how "non-Newtonian" and "Newtonian" students create mental models of conceptual systems in physics as they read texts related to the ideas of Newton's third law, energy, and momentum. We found significant effects of prior knowledge state on patterns of reading time, suggesting that students attempt to actively integrate physics texts with their existing knowledge.
AB - We present results of a reading study that show the usefulness of probing physics students' cognitive processing by measuring reading time. According to contemporary discourse theory, when people read a text, a network of associated inferences is activated to create a mental model. If the reader encounters an idea in the text that conflicts with existing knowledge, the construction of a coherent mental model is disrupted and reading times are prolonged, as measured using a simple self-paced reading paradigm. We used this effect to study how "non-Newtonian" and "Newtonian" students create mental models of conceptual systems in physics as they read texts related to the ideas of Newton's third law, energy, and momentum. We found significant effects of prior knowledge state on patterns of reading time, suggesting that students attempt to actively integrate physics texts with their existing knowledge.
KW - Misconceptions
KW - Physics education research
KW - Reading
KW - Recruitment of prior knowledge
KW - Situation model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=71449116778&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1063/1.2820948
DO - 10.1063/1.2820948
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:71449116778
SN - 9780735404656
T3 - AIP Conference Proceedings
SP - 65
EP - 68
BT - 2007 Physics Education Research Conference, PERC
T2 - 2007 Physics Education Research Conference: Cognitive Science and Physics Education Research, PERC
Y2 - 1 August 2007 through 2 August 2007
ER -