Learning from Conflicting Texts: The Role of Intertextual Conflict Resolution in Between-Text Integration

The present study examined the effect of intertextual conflict resolution on learning from conflicting texts. In two experiments, participants read sets of two texts under the condition of being encouraged either to resolve a conflict between the texts' arguments (the resolution condition) or to comprehend the arguments (the comprehension condition). Experiment 1 found that participants in the resolution condition surpassed participants in the comprehension condition at the understanding of the controversial subjects and succeeded in the understanding of the intertextual relationships. Experiment 2 found that participants in the resolution condition recalled compatible and incompatible information from the texts more than did participants in the comprehension condition. The recalled information from one text was also positively correlated with that from the opposite text. These results suggest that intertextual conflict resolution facilitates successful integration of conflicting arguments in texts in terms of the documents model framework (e.g., Britt & Rouet, 2012).