TY  - JOUR
A1  - Soemer, Alexander
A1  - Schiefele, Ulrich
T1  - Text difficulty, topic interest, and mind wandering during reading
T2  - Learning and instruction : the journal of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction
N2  - The present article deals with the question of how the difficulty of a text affects a reader's tendency to engage in task-unrelated thinking (mind wandering) during reading, and the potential role of topic interest as a mediator of the relation between text difficulty and mind wandering. Two-hundred and sixteen participants read three texts with each text either being easy, moderate, or difficult in terms of readability and cohesion. From time to time during reading, participants were interrupted and required to indicate whether they were voluntarily or involuntarily engaging in mind wandering. After reading each text, they rated their interest in and familiarity with the topic, and subsequently answered a number of comprehension questions. The results revealed that reading difficult texts increased both voluntary and involuntary mind wandering and this increase partially explained the negative relation between text difficulty and comprehension. Furthermore, topic interest fully mediated the effect of text difficulty on both forms of mind wandering.
KW  - Mind wandering
KW  - Reading comprehension
KW  - Interest
KW  - Text difficulty
Y1  - 2019
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/49230
SN  - 0959-4752
VL  - 61
SP  - 12
EP  - 22
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -