Processes and products of encountering belief-related information

This chapter focuses on the role of beliefs and attitudes on the processes readers use to engage with information from multiple sources, often presenting multiple perspectives, and the products of those processes. The chapter provides an overview of the possible ways in which beliefs and attitudes influence the processes and products of reading information from multiple perspectives. Indeed, this chapter views students' beliefs and attitudes as types of perspectives in-and-of themselves. The chapter begins with an overview of memory-based and reader-directed processing, and how both can influence the ways in which we process belief-related information. A model is introduced to describe how memory-based and reader-directed processing unfolds when individuals read belief-related information. This model captures the interaction between the perspectives that learners may bring to a text and those that they encounter during reading. Directions for future research are provided.