Media multitasking reading habits are negatively associated to text comprehension and metacomprehension

Abstract

Research on the relationship between media multitasking and text comprehension has largely focused on the consequences of multitasking concurrently to a reading episode. Little is known about the relation between media multitasking habits and text comprehension and metacomprehension. We conducted three experiments involving different student samples (undergraduates and secondary-school students). Participants read expository texts varying in length, difficulty, and the reading medium. Experiment 3 varied the presence of a distraction task. After reading, the students predicted their performance in a subsequent text comprehension test and then completed the test. Main results showed a negative association between media multitasking habits and text comprehension across all the experiments, even after controlling for students' sustained attention and short-term verbal memory capacity, reading comprehension skills, and prior knowledge. The association between media multitasking habits and metacomprehension varied across experiments. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these relationships and suggest lines to further explore this phenomenon.

Educational relevance and implications

Our study identified a consistent negative association between the media multitasking reading habits of secondary-school and undergraduate students' and their text comprehension and metacomprehension. The relationship between undergraduate students' metacomprehension and media multitasking habits was more pronounced when reading long texts on screen (vs. in print). We found that text difficulty and engaging in a secondary off-task activity while reading did not significantly influence any of the associations. Although our results do not imply causation due to their correlational nature, they do support the idea of motivating and training students to minimize multitasking behaviour during reading to avoid potential detrimental effects on their reading comprehension skills.