I think I was wrong: The effect of making experimental predictions when learning about theories from psychology textbook excerpts

Students often struggle with developing understanding from expository science texts. This study explored whether training students to engage in a POE (Predict-Observe-Explain) study strategy might be beneficial when learning from texts that introduce theories by describing experiments and empirical results, a common style in social science textbooks. The main questions tested in this experiment were if training students how to use a POE study strategy while reading textbook excerpts would support better comprehension and comprehension monitoring outcomes when students engaged in future learning attempts for an introductory psychology class. In one condition students were trained to use the POE study strategy, while in a comparison condition students were simply trained to use an explanation study strategy. Analyses suggested that students in the POE strategy training condition may have become preoccupied with whether or not their experimental predictions were correct, prohibiting them from engaging with the POE strategy as intended. Although both POE and explanation strategy training helped students to improve their comprehension monitoring on a new set of texts, students in the explanation condition displayed better comprehension on those new texts than students in the POE condition.