The influence of topic knowledge, external strategy use, and college experience on students' comprehension of controversial texts

This study examined the influence of three personal factors, namely, prior knowledge about the text topic, external strategy use during reading, and experience in college, on students' comprehension of the relations among controversial texts. Eighty-six 1-year and 80 3-year undergraduate students answered a questionnaire assessing topic knowledge. One week later, they read two controversial texts and then completed two tasks assessing their comprehension of intertextual relations and recall of intratextual arguments respectively. The results indicated that topic knowledge influenced the comprehension of intertextual relations through enhancing the processing of intratextual arguments. The production of summary notes during reading had indirect and direct positive effects. Longer experience in college led to a better understanding of intertextual relations.