Pre-existing beliefs bias mental representations of socio-scientific controversies in favour of the perspective(s) that endorse(s) them. Several conditions have been proposed to moderate such belief-biased mental representations of controversial information. The present study examined the effects of readers’ prior beliefs on their mental models of textual information on the level of situation-model and text-base representations. The study further investigated the extent that author status, readers’ certainty and justification beliefs moderate the effect of prior beliefs on the readers’ representations. Sixty-two undergraduate students of English as a foreign language read two texts that provided arguments for and against an established controversy in language education. A recognition task was used to assess their situation-model and text-base strengths. The results revealed that readers’ representations were biased towards the information that supported their beliefs at the level of the situation model but not at the level of the text-base. The results further revealed no main or moderating effects for author status on the interaction of beliefs and readers’ mental models of the information. However, readers’ certainty beliefs and beliefs about justification for knowing were shown to moderate the belief-biased representation of the controversial information.

先前存在的信念使社会科学争议的心理表征偏向于支持它们的观点。已经提出了几个条件来缓和这种对有争议的信息的信念偏见的心理表征。本研究在情境模型和基于文本的表征水平上检验了读者的先验信念对其文本信息心智模型的影响。该研究进一步调查了作者身份、读者的确定性和正当性信念在调节先前信念对读者表征的影响的程度。62 名将英语作为外语的本科生阅读了两篇文章，为支持和反对语言教育中已存在的争议提供了论据。识别任务用于评估他们的情境模型和文本库优势。结果表明，读者的表征偏向于在情境模型层面而不是在文本库层面支持他们信念的信息。结果进一步揭示了作者身份对信念和读者对信息的心理模型的相互作用没有主要或调节作用。然而，读者的确定性信念和关于知道理由的信念被证明可以缓和有争议的信息的信念偏见表示。结果进一步揭示了作者身份对信念和读者对信息的心理模型的相互作用没有主要或调节作用。然而，读者的确定性信念和关于知道理由的信念被证明可以缓和有争议的信息的信念偏见表示。结果进一步揭示了作者身份对信念和读者对信息的心理模型的相互作用没有主要或调节作用。然而，读者的确定性信念和关于知道理由的信念被证明可以缓和有争议的信息的信念偏见表示。