Most students profit from the easy accessibility of online
information, but specific competencies for successful reading on
the internet are seldom taught during class. Therefore, students
might not be able to choose credible information autonomously.
Empirical evidence suggests that high school students hardly
evaluate the credibility of sources (“sourcing”) when reading
multiple documents. Consequently, effective interventions which
foster sourcing skills are needed. This study evaluates the effects
of a written instruction designed to augment sourcing activities in a
multiple document reading task by inducing epistemic vigilance.
The written instruction introduces the concept of the division of
cognitive labor and informs about low editorial control on the
internet. In comparison to a control group, students receiving the
instruction prior to completing an internet research task showed
more attention to, evaluation of, and memory for sources