Incremental theories of intelligence predict multiple document comprehension

• Students read multiple documents on a science issue.
• Beliefs in intelligence as malleable uniquely predicted source evaluation.
• Beliefs in intelligence as malleable uniquely predicted comprehension.
• Beliefs in intelligence as fixed did not uniquely predict performance.

This study examined implicit theories of intelligence as predictors of multiple document comprehension in a sample of 59 Norwegian upper-secondary school students. In four multiple regression analyses with multiple document comprehension indicated by students' inclusion of scientific concepts in their essays, discrimination between more and less useful documents given the reading task, consideration of document trustworthiness as a basis for making those discriminations, and ability to draw inferences across documents as outcome measures, beliefs in intelligence as a malleable, increasable quality emerged as a unique positive predictor after controlling for word recognition, prior knowledge, and working memory. However, beliefs in intelligence as a fixed, unchangeable quantity did not emerge as a unique negative predictor. The findings indicate that the benefits of endorsing an incremental theory of intelligence may be more pronounced than the costs of endorsing an entity theory of intelligence in complex reading task contexts.