Does Medium Matter? Examining Calibration Accuracy, Comprehension Performance, and Computer Familiarity among Adolescents
Abstract
Two studies were conducted to examine calibration, comprehension, and students’ familiarity with digital reading technologies. The first study investigated whether there were media-related differences in comprehension and calibration while studying narrative and expository texts. The participants (N = 38) were high school students from a predominantly low-socioeconomic region in the United States. The results indicated that there were no differences in comprehension performance across medium types. A marginally statistically significant interaction was detected between text genre and medium type such that better performance on narrative texts was noted in the digital condition. Higher Gamma correlations on digital medium indicate that students calibrated their comprehension more accurately when they read digitally. The second study investigated high school students’ (N = 55) calibration of narrative and expository texts and explored whether familiarity levels with digital devices influence their comprehension performance. Calibration accuracy was inversely associated with students’ comprehension performance, indicating that students were underconfident. The MANOVA did not reveal a statistically significant effect of familiarity levels on comprehension performance on either text genre. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that students’ use of digital devices at home and school for academic and recreational purposes did not significantly predict comprehension performance. Implications and recommendations for further research are discussed.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Secondary education|Educational technology|Reading instruction
Recommended Citation
Hines, Dezmarie, "Does Medium Matter? Examining Calibration Accuracy, Comprehension Performance, and Computer Familiarity among Adolescents" (2021). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI28496476.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI28496476
