Effects of an executive function-based text support on strategy use and comprehension–integration of conflicting informational texts

Executive functions (EF) have been theoretically implicated in multiple text comprehension. Yet, the contributions of EFs to comprehension and integration of multiple texts have not been tested empirically, and instructional supports for text integration grounded in EFs are only beginning to be developed. Using a conflicting-text paradigm, this study examined the roles of EFs, based on measures of learners’ reported EF use and EF skills, and a text-embedded intervention, designed to elicit readers’ EF and metacognitive engagement, in comprehension–integration of conflicting informational texts. Structural equation modeling was employed to test a proposed indirect effects model in which EF use and skills and the text intervention condition predicted comprehension–integration, both directly and via reported cross-text elaboration; academic achievement was controlled. Learners’ reported EF use contributed directly and indirectly to learners’ comprehension–integration of the conflicting texts; EF skills, based on a measure of verbal fluency, contributed only indirectly to comprehension–integration. The effect of condition on comprehension–integration was transmitted entirely through learners’ reported use of cross-text elaboration strategies. The model explained 15% and 16% of the variance in reported cross-text elaboration and comprehension–integration, respectively, suggesting moderate effects of EFs and the brief, text-embedded intervention on comprehension–integration of the texts. Empirical and theoretical implications are discussed.