Investigating the Cognitive Affective Engagement Model of Learning From Multiple Texts: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Given limited work modeling the role of individual difference factors and processing variables in students’ learning from multiple texts, the author evaluates such a model. In particular, the model analyzed examines the relation between cognitive (i.e., habits with regard to information evaluation) and affective (i.e., interest) individual difference factors and multiple-text outcomes (i.e., integrated mental model development and intertext model development, as facets of multiple-text integration), as mediated by students’ processing of multiple texts (i.e., time on texts, engagement in cross-textual elaboration). Interest and time devoted to text access were found to have a direct effect on integrated mental model formation, whereas time and students’ engagement in cross-textual elaboration had a direct effect on intertext model development. Additionally, time on texts mediated the relation between both individual difference factors and the integration-related outcomes examined. Implications for theory development and research on learning from multiple texts are discussed.