A tale of two tests: The role of topic and general academic knowledge in traditional versus contemporary scenario-based reading

We compared high school students’ performance in a traditional comprehension assessment requiring them to identify key information and draw inferences from single texts, scenario-based (SBA) integrate, evaluate apply across multiple sources. Both assessments focused on non-academic topic. Performance the two were moderately correlated (r = 0.57), but SBA was more difficult (Study 1; n 342). The similarly depended basic reading skills diverged relation academic knowledge (non-academic) topic 2; 1107). Academic highly predictive of comprehension, less so for SBA. Topic than comprehension. Thus, tap into similar constructs related comprehension; however, level is important scenario-based, multiple-source tasks, whereas tasks.