Children's Reading of Printed Text and Hypertext with Navigation Overviews: The Role of Comprehension, Sustained Attention, and Visuo-Spatial Abilities

Hypertexts include new structural features, such as navigable graphical overviews, that dramatically change the way students interact with texts. Nevertheless, at school students traditionally practice literacy skills appropriate for reading and comprehending printed texts. We explored the possibility that those skills might not be the same as the ones required to master hypertext reading. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that hypertext structural features, such as navigable graphical overviews, might scaffold students with low comprehension and sustained-attention abilities, but demand higher involvement of visuo-spatial skills. Results from a group of 6th-grade students only partially supported the hypertext structural hypothesis: while students with low sustained-attention abilities scored higher on questions demanding the integration of information in the hypertext version, the impact of comprehension and visuo-spatial abilities on performance did not differ between text types. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and potential instructional applications of the results.