Critical thinking about biology during web page reading: tracking students' evaluations of sources and information through eye fixations

The infinite body of information made available on the Web poses questions of locating, selecting, and evaluating the sources of information and the information itself, which requires new and complex critical thinking skills. This chapter addresses the role of external representations in reasoning by examining the epistemic processing of texts and pictures about a biology topic, which are presented on multiple Internet pages. Indirect evidence of epistemic processing was revealed by the objective measurement of visual attention through eye fixations. University students read four web pages differing for authoritativeness, which provided various types of information. Findings showed that participants allocated different amounts of attention to different texts and pictures on a web page. Visual attention was also allocated according to source credibility. In addition, students’ individual differences regarding prior knowledge, epistemic beliefs, and argumentative reasoning played a role in epistemic processing to some extent. Scientific and educational implications are outlined.