From Selection to Organization: Effects of Structure-Guided Digital Highlighting on Learning from Expository Text

Published: 8 September 2026| Version 1 | DOI: 10.17632/wgc93xrc89.1
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Description

This dataset accompanies an experimental study examining whether digital learner-generated highlighting can better support learning when aligned with the compare-and-contrast structure of an expository text. A total of 186 seventh-grade students from three schools in Santiago, Chile, were randomly assigned to four conditions: study-only, traditional highlighting, color-coded highlighting, or matrix-guided highlighting. The main hypothesis was that structure-guided highlighting would improve learning relative to study-only and traditional highlighting. Color-coded highlighting required students to classify selected information according to its structural role, whereas matrix-guided highlighting additionally required students to organize selected information within a spatial matrix. A second hypothesis predicted that both structure-guided conditions would produce more eye-movement transitions between the two text paragraphs. The dataset includes memory and comprehension outcomes, time on task, total gaze duration on the text, between-paragraph transitions, baseline reading-comprehension scores, and gender. Memory was assessed with a 14-item cloze test and comprehension with a written summary scored using a four-criterion rubric. Eye movements were recorded with a Tobii Pro Nano eye tracker. No significant group differences were found for memory. For comprehension, matrix-guided highlighting significantly outperformed study-only (d = 0.77) and traditional highlighting (d = 0.61), although it did not differ significantly from color-coded highlighting. Both structure-guided conditions produced more between-paragraph transitions than study-only and traditional highlighting. All highlighting conditions also required more time and produced longer gaze duration than study-only. The findings should not be interpreted as showing that greater time, visual attention, or transition frequency necessarily improves learning. Rather, the clearest comprehension benefit occurred when selected information was organized within an external relational representation. Between-paragraph transitions should be interpreted as indicators of comparative visual search rather than direct evidence of successful integration.

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The study used a between-subjects experimental design with 186 seventh-grade students from three schools in Santiago, Chile. Students first completed a standardized reading-comprehension test. They then received a 90-minute classroom training session introducing three ways of studying compare-and-contrast texts: traditional highlighting, color-coded highlighting, and matrix-guided highlighting. One to two weeks later, students were randomly assigned within classrooms to one of four conditions—study-only, traditional highlighting, color-coded highlighting, or matrix-guided highlighting—with assignment balanced by gender and baseline reading-comprehension scores. The experimental task was completed individually using a computer-based application presenting a compare-and-contrast text about the Chango and Rapa Nui peoples. Traditional highlighting used a single yellow color; color-coded highlighting used different colors to classify entities, attributes, and values; and matrix-guided highlighting required students to select text and place it into corresponding matrix cells. Students in the highlighting conditions received a 5-minute interface tutorial before the task. The study-only group had up to 5 minutes to read the text, whereas highlighting groups had up to 15 minutes to complete their assigned activity. After studying, students completed a written-summary comprehension task and a 14-item cloze memory test without access to the text or their annotations. Eye movements were recorded with a Tobii Pro Nano eye tracker mounted on a 23-inch monitor and analyzed using Tobii Pro Lab. Process measures included time on task, total gaze duration on the text, and the number of transitions between the two text paragraphs.

Categories

Educational Technology, Reading Comprehension, Learning Strategy

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