Learning From Multiple Representations: What Happens When an Informational Text Is Combined With an Ambiguous Graph?

ABSTRACT This study addressed an issue relevant to information and research literacy: how students cope with the challenges of reading a one‐sided informational text that is combined with ambiguous graphical information. The topic discussed in the text was the impact of digitalization on students' reading comprehension, and 120 university students were randomly assigned to reading a version of the text arguing that digitalization has had a positive impact or a version of the text arguing that digitalization has had a negative impact. It was found that students largely ignored or gave a distorted interpretation of the ambiguous graph in postreading written reports about the topic, seldom integrating the ambiguous graph in their written reports by trying to reconcile the text–graph information or taking a critical stance toward the textual information. Furthermore, when reproducing the ambiguous graph from memory, students' reproductions were strongly biased in the direction of the textual argument that they read. Students' prior beliefs about the topic did not moderate the effects of the textual argument on their written reports or their graph reproductions, with the textual argument influencing how they considered (or did not consider) the ambiguous graph in their written reports and their graph reproductions independent of their topic beliefs. Students' tendency to disregard the ambiguity of the graph and uncritically rely on the textual information alone may raise concerns because the development of information and research literacy requires that students learn to take data presentations that challenge strong one‐sided textual interpretations of research findings into consideration.