Table 1.

Literature review of expressive integration tasks.

Researchers	Readers	Texts	Task	Assessment
Anmarkrud et al. (2013)	51 students from a large state university in southeast Norway	A≠B Six documents that presented different perspectives on cell phones and potential health risks.	Essay writing “You are now going to write a short essay where you judge the health risk of cell phone use. Base your response on the texts that you just read and try to express yourself clearly and elaborate the information—preferably in your own words. Justify your conclusions by referring to the sources you have been working with.”	The essays were coded from 1 to 7 for: simple • Including a position on the issue simple • Supporting and opposing reasons simple • Elaborations simple • Rebuttals See also: Bråten et al. (2014b); Bråten et al. (2015).
Barzilai and Eshet-Alkalai, 2015	170 Hebrew-speaking students from an Israeli university	A≠B, A+B Four texts, designed as blog posts, dealing with increasing use of seawater desalination in Israel. The four texts were either convergent or conflicting (two conditions).	Essay writing “Please write an argument that addresses the question: should the State of Israel continue to encourage the construction of seawater desalination plants? Present your position on this issue and justify it.”	Essays were coded for: simple • Structure simple • Number of positions presented and their justification.
Blaum et al. (2017),	46 seventh grade students from a Midwestern middle school	A≠B Seven texts and a graph dealing with climate change and presenting different aspects.	Essay writing “Your task is to use this set of documents to write an essay explaining how and why recent patterns in global temperature are different from what has been observed in the past and what we can do about it. Be sure to use specific information from the documents to support your conclusions and ideas.” Sentence verification task	Essays were coded for: simple • Coverage of the seven important concepts for explaining global warming simple • References to the source Sentence verification task was coded for: Students rated the extent to which 18 sentences were potential connections between the texts, from inconsistent (1) to consistent (6) with the ideas in the texts.
Gil et al. (2010a)	53 undergraduates from two universities in Valencia	A≠B Seven separate texts about different aspects of climate change. One text provided neutral general information and the other texts were conflicting or convergent.	Summary∖Argument writing (two conditions) “Base your report on information included in the following seven texts. Use the most relevant information, and try to express yourself clearly and to elaborate the information—preferably in your own words.” Sentence verification task Readers judged whether 26 statements were valid or invalid inferences.	Essays were coded for idea units, and each unit was coded for degree of transformation: simple • Paraphrasing simple • Elaboration simple • Additions simple • Misconceptions simple • Number of sources simple • Number of switches between sources See also: Stahl et al. (1996); Gil et al. (2010b).
Goldman et al. (2013)	211 students in Grades 5 (n = 70), 6 (n = 90), and 7 (n = 51)	A+B Texts that provide complementary reasons in answer to the question: Why were the civil rights events of 1955–1965 more successful than previous civil rights events? Prior to the texts, readers received an audio and animation introduction to the inquiry question.	Writing an essay to answer an inquiry question “Why were the civil rights events of 1955–1965 more successful than previous civil rights events?”	Essays were coded for: simple • Number of essay statements that were directly copied from the texts simple • Number of essay statements that were paraphrases of statements from the texts simple • Word count simple • Inferences not related to synthesis Instances of prior knowledge use simple • Number of distortions of presented content
Griffin et al. (2012)	59 American seventh grade students	A+B Seven documents Containing convergent information about the causes of global temperature change.	Writing an essay “Use this set of documents to write an essay explaining how and why recent patterns in global temperature are different from what has been observed in the past.”	Essays were coded for: simple • Including central concepts See also: Braasch et al. (2014); Linderholm et al. (2016).
			Sentence verification task 18 statements that represented potential connections or inferences that could or could not be made based on the information in the document set.	Sentence verification task was coded for: simple • Judging whether integrative statements were valid or not
Hastings et al. (2012)	460 students in Grades 5,6,7,8	A+B Three texts, each providing different reasons for the increase in the population of Chicago from 1830–1930.	Writing an essay to answer an inquiry question “In 1830 there were 100 people living in Chicago. By 1930, there were three million. Why did so many people move to Chicago?”	Use of three computer programs that automatically recognize simple • Covering main ideas
Le Bigot and Rouet (2007)	65 students from a university in France	A+B Seven short hyper texts, about different aspects of social influence.	Short essays “You will have to read and understand texts about the social influence. You will then have to write a one-page (about 5–10 lines) summary based on this set of texts. The summary will have to present the main ideas expressed in these texts on the subject of social influence.”	Essays were coded for: simple • Length simple • Connectives simple • Transformed information simple • References to documents
Linderholm et al. (2014)	183 undergraduate students from the southeast United States	A+B Three expository texts on the topics of electrical circuits, batteries, and lightning. Some of the content overlapped and some was unique to each text.	Essay writing “Imagine that you are a teacher and have to explain how circuits work to your students—but you have to do so in writing. Explain (in writing) how circuits work and illustrate your explanation with examples from each of the three texts you have read. Be sure to incorporate ideas from each of the three texts to explain to your students how circuits work.”	Essays were coded for: simple • Paraphrases simple • Integration within texts simple • Integration across texts simple • Statements including novelty simple • Information not included in any text
Rouet et al. (1997)	11 graduate students of psychology and eight graduate students of history	A≠B Seven texts dealing with the Panama Canal and presenting two controversies. The texts included historians’ essays, official documents, participants’ accounts, and a textbook excerpt.	Essay writing History doctoral students expressed their opinion on the controversy.	Opinions were scored as no claim, restricted claim, or full claim simple • Contextualization simple • Sourcing simple • Corroboration
Stadtler et al. (2013)	100 Undergraduates From a German university	A≠B Four texts that contained two controversial issues.	Writing an essay “Your friend is asking you to assist her by carefully reading the materials so that you will later be able to report what you have found out. She needs your information to make a knowledge-based decision about whether to take action to lower her high cholesterol level.”	Essays were coded for: simple • Reporting conflicts in a two-sided or one-sided manner simple • References to sources See also: Stadtler et al. (2014).
Kobayashi (2007)	80 Japanese students from Shizuoka University	A≠B Six letters to the editor concerning English education in elementary school in Japan.	Intertextual relation task Readers were required to describe how the six text writers’ arguments were interrelated with one another.	Answers were coded for: simple • Describing how arguments were related to each other
Bråten et al. (2013a)	65 Norwegian tenth graders	A≠B Five texts that presented different perspectives on sun exposure and health. The first text was neutral, while the four others contained partly conflicting information.	Three open ended questions that required participants to consider each perspective’s claim, integrate perspectives across texts, and pit perspectives against each other.	Answers were scored for: simple • Main arguments simple • Supporting reasons simple • Opposing arguments simple • Reconciling conflicts See also: Bråten et al. (2013b); Bråten et al. (2014a); Ferguson and Bråten (2013); Strømsø et al. (2016). ∗Bråten et al. (2013b) used two open-ended, short-essay questions.
Cerdán and Vidal-Abarca (2008)	56 undergraduate students enrolled in a psychology program at the University of Valencia, Spain.	A+B Three texts that describe a physical phenomenon, presented on a computer screen.	Three open ended questions asking about a practical case in which students had to apply their new knowledge to a new situation.	Answers were coded for: simple • Inclusion of the relevant idea units from the text. simple • Number of non-consecutive readings of relevant units of information, which indicated an effort to connect and integrate the two paragraphs, was assessed by computer software.
List and Alexander (2015)	215 undergraduate students at a large mid- Atlantic university in the United States.	A≠B, A+B Library of seven digital texts, specific to each of four questions assigned, dealing with psychology or astronomy.	One open ended question and one question that demanded a short written answer	Answers were coded for: simple • Number of words simple • Use of evidence and elaborations simple • Amount of information included simple • Connections between details.
Merkt et al. (2017)	127 ninth graders from German Secondary schools	A≠B Eight documents about the German Emergency Law that was introduced in West Germany.	Open ended questions While the documents were still available, the students answered two open-ended questions. The first question required them to name commonalities and differences between the documents with regard to the attitudes reflected in the documents toward the German Emergency Law. The second question (Q2) asked for the reasons for the commonalities and differences between the documents. This task required participants to situate source information about the documents in a historical context.	Q1- simple • Number of commonalities and differences Q2- simple • Noting that the documents’ origin was the main reason for the commonalities and differences.
Beker et al. (2016)	27 Leiden University undergraduates studying education sciences or psychology	A≠B Pairs of expository texts dealing with animals, objects, persons, etc. The texts included inconsistencies, with or without explanations and elaborations.	Oral recall of texts’ content	Mentioning unique information in the texts
Wolfe and Goldman (2005)	44 sixth grade American students	A≠B Two opposing historical accounts of the fall of Rome, a time line, a map, and a fact list.	Answering an integrative question orally, an interview, and think aloud “If someone were to ask you why the Roman Empire could not defend themselves against the Barbarian invasion, what would you say to that person?”	Integrative question was coded for: simple • Number of reasons mentioned simple • The complexity of the reasoning simple • Integration of causes Think aloud protocols were coded for: simple • Paraphrasing simple • Elaborations simple • Predictions