Regina Jucks

Supporting Experts' Written Knowledge Communication Through Reflective Prompts on the Use of Specialist Concepts

Communicating expert knowledge to a lay addressee in writing is a demanding task that requires a great deal of mental effort. This article reports on a study in which experts were prompted to reflect either on a text they had produced (content focus condition) or on its comprehensibility to a layperson (recipient focus condition). A software tool highlighted the specialist terms or concepts used by the expert writers and guided the reflection process. Subsequent to this reflection phase, writers had the opportunity to revise their texts. Experts in the recipient focus condition significantly expanded their texts and made more meaningful revisions. For example, they were more likely than experts in the content focus condition to explain central concepts in their revision. Results are discussed from the perspective of writing theories and in terms of their practical implications for written knowledge communication.

Learning through online peer discourse: Structural equation modeling points to the role of discourse activities in individual understanding

Although learning through discourse activities seems well-documented, it is unclear which mechanisms and behavioral variables are involved. What exactly contributes to learning when two or more learners interact in online learning environments? To analyze interrelations between central discourse activities and individual learning outcomes at the level of constructs, we applied structural equation modeling to data collected from 160 dyads engaging in written online learning discourses within a series of homogeneous experiments. We analyzed three theory-based indicators of conceptual elaboration activities during online discourse: the number of questions asked to receive information and expand knowledge, the number of explanations formulated to express individual knowledge, and the amount of on-task discourse. Individual conceptual understanding was represented by objective learning parameters that varied in each particular experimental task. These measured general understanding of the topic addressed and particular understanding of conceptual terms, complemented by the gain in individual self-assessed knowledge. Results of structural equation modeling revealed a strong effect of dyadic conceptual elaboration on individual understanding at the construct level, demonstrating that dyadic elaboration fosters the development of an elaborated individual understanding of specialist concepts and general content knowledge. Moreover, conceptual elaboration was best measured by the number of explanations during discourse. Implications regarding which features of collaborative learning settings promote mutual conceptual elaboration are discussed.

College students' knowledge of concepts related to the metabolic syndrome

Abstract This paper explores lay understanding of illnesses related to the metabolic syndrome (MetS), a constellation of metabolic derailments associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases. Because lifestyle factors play an important role in preventing the metabolic syndrome, physicians need to convey the need for lifestyle changes to their patients. In order to do this comprehensibly, pre-existing lay knowledge must be taken into account. Until now, research on lay medical knowledge has shown that lay and expert conceptual understandings often diverge, but has focused solely on content-related aspects of lay knowledge. In a questionnaire study with a college student lay sample, we investigated both the content and structure of lay knowledge on illness terms related to the metabolic syndrome. While a descriptive content analysis illustrates lay concept representations, the analysis of lay knowledges structure suggests that a “lay kind of illness script” is a useful conceptualization of lay illness knowledge. Implications of our findings for doctor–patient communication are discussed.

Scripting in Net-Based Medical Consultation: The Impact of External Representations on Giving Advice and Explanations

In this chapter, a distinction is made between three concepts of scripting communication: 1) social roles as a non-deliberative, non-instructional form of scripting, 2) explicit and 3) implicit scripting. Both of the latter are forms used in instructional collaborative settings to influence and change behavior. As we established in a previous study, external representations both structure and constrain asynchronous expert-layperson communication (Bromme, Jucks, & Runde, 2005). According to Suthers (e.g., Suthers & Hundhausen, 2003), external representations guide discourses. Because shared external representations have the potential to influence learning and collaboration processes in a non-directive manner, we define the concept of representational guidance as implicit scripting. In the present study, we focused on the potential to support shared decision making when patients seek advice from medical doctors through the Internet. When communicating via computers, it is easy to make external representations available to both communication partners. Therefore, whether or not shared graphic representations function as an implicit script and have an impact on the communication content was tested empirically. Our main hypothesis is as follows: with a shared external representation in the background more specialist arguments are brought forward than without such a representation. In accordance with this hypothesis, we found that the external representation had a considerable influence on content selection during the discourse.

Perspective Taking in Computer-Mediated Instructional Communication

This article examines which features of computer-mediated communication make perspective taking more demanding in online instructional settings compared with face-to-face situations. The first part presents the theoretical basis: It uses research on expertise to gain insights into the instructor’s perspective, and research from psycholinguistics and research on writing to describe the cognitive demands of communicating expert knowledge to nonexperts. The second part reports empirical results from online health counseling. This reveals that the persistence of artifacts makes the expert perspective more prominent and seems to hinder experts’ engagement in perspective taking during instruction. Two central variables that emerge in computer-mediated communication are discussed: The availability of texts and graphics as well as the nonexpert’s use of technical jargon. Both influence an expert’s choice of words and selection of content for a particular explanation. Hence, features of the learning environment, t...

Patients medical knowledge and health counseling: What kind of information helps to make communication patient-centered?

OBJECTIVE To examine how physicians use information about a patients background knowledge when both anticipating what a patient knows and producing actual answers in an email counseling setting. METHODS A fictitious patient used a (high vs. low) level of technical jargon in an email inquiry about diabetes and provided explicit information on prior knowledge (high vs. low) through self-report. Final-year medical students (semi-experts) were asked to gauge the patients knowledge level (Experiment 1) and to produce an answer to the inquiry (Experiment 2). A total of N=150 participated in one of the two experiments. RESULTS Information from word usage and self-reports was used differently in the two experiments. A patient self-reporting low knowledge was assumed to have less background knowledge than one reporting some knowledge about the domain. The technicality of the patients word use influenced the answers: these were more technical when the inquiry used technical jargon instead of everyday language. CONCLUSION Knowledge anticipation and communication behavior in email health care seem to be guided by different hints regarding the patient, suggesting the existence of two separate mechanisms. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Beyond merely teaching physicians or health care providers to be aware of the patients knowledge level when formulating a patient-centered response, on-task methods should support health care providers during the actual communication phase by providing, for instance, metacognitive prompts.

Kann man dem Internet trauen, wenn es um die Gesundheit geht?

Zusammenfassung. In der vorliegenden Studie geht es um die Beurteilung der Glaubwurdigkeit und Verstandlichkeit medizinischer Informationen. In einem Vergleich zwischen den Medien Internet und Zeitschrift wurde an unabhangigen Stichproben experimentell uberpruft, welche Wirkung das Medium auf die von Laien beurteilte Glaubwurdigkeit und Verstandlichkeit der Informationen hat und ob die Bewertung zusatzlich durch die Aufbereitung der Informationen beeinflusst wird. Es zeigte sich, dass die in der Zeitschrift prasentierten Informationen unabhangig von der Gestaltung als signifikant glaubwurdiger beurteilt wurden als dieselben Informationen im Internet. Wahrend den Informationen mit Abbildungen ebenfalls mehr Glaubwurdigkeit zugeschrieben wurde, hatte die zusatzliche Aufbereitung des im Internet dargebotenen Texts mit Hyperlinks keinen Einfluss. Bezuglich der perzipierten Verstandlichkeit der Informationen ergaben sich keine Unterschiede zwischen den untersuchten Medien.

Audience Design von Experten in der netzgestützten Kommunikation

Zusammenfassung. In der textbasierten, asynchronen Kommunikation via Internet ist die Anpassung von Auserungen an das vermutete Vorwissen des Rezipienten - im Sinne eines Audience Design - besonders wichtig, weil viele Hinweisreize fehlen, die in der face to face (ftf) Kommunikation eine Anpassung an den Rezipienten unterstutzen. Es wird untersucht, welchen Einfluss zwei in der ftf-Kommunikation verwendete Heuristiken auf die Gestaltung von Kommunikationsbeitragen in der netzbasierten Experten-Laien-Kommunikation haben: Die Community Membership Heuristik und die Physical Copresence Heuristik. Dazu wird eine netzbasierte Beratungssituation experimentell simuliert: Pharmazeuten beantworten schriftlich fachliche Anfragen von (fiktiven) Laien und Medizinern. Ihnen steht dabei eine fachliche Abbildung oder Stichwortliste als externe Reprasentation zur Verfugung, die sich inhaltlich auf den zu erklarenden Sachzusammenhang bezieht. Berucksichtigen die Experten in ihren Erklarungen den Expertisestatus der anfrage...

Believing in Expertise: How Authors’ Credentials and Language Use Influence the Credibility of Online Health Information

ABSTRACT Today, many people use the Internet to seek health advice. This study examines how an author’s expertise is established and how this affects the credibility of his or her online health information. In a 2 (authors’ credentials: medical vs. nonmedical) × 2 (authors’ language use: technical vs. every day) within-subjects design, 127 study participants, or “seekers,” judged authors’ expertise, benevolence, and integrity as well as the credibility of their medical statements. In addition, we assessed seekers’ awareness of their own knowledge and behavior. Results revealed that users consciously rewarded authors’ credentials and subconsciously punished technical language. Seekers were keenly aware of authors’ credentials and perceived authors with medical credentials to have a higher level of expertise and their information to be more credible. Technical language use negatively affected authors’ integrity and the credibility of their health information, despite seekers being unaware of it. Practical implications for health communication and implications for future research are outlined.

Better to have many opinions than one from an expert? Social validation by one trustworthy source versus the masses in online health forums

Online health forums offer many cues such as who evaluated a certain piece of information and how many users have assessed the contribution. These cues help information seekers to answer questions of trust, e.g. whom and which information to rely on. This study seeks to determine the effect of social validation on trusting online health information. Specifically we question how much an expert statement is valued compared to a strong in numbers opinion from an anonymous mass. We report a study that manipulated the social validation of medical statements within online forum posts in a 2 (quality cue: yes vs. no)2 (quantity cue: yes vs. no) within-subjects design (N=78). Dependent measures were credibility of health statements and trustworthiness of the author. Results showed that forum users trust social validation by the masses (quantity cue) just as well as validation by an expert (quality cue). Nevertheless, they did not question how the masses cue related to the actual correctness of the statement. We report internet users evaluation of health information online.Social validation of online health information impact credibility.Health seekers place a high trust in information linked to an expert source.