Oscar Skovdahl Jørstad

Bråten, I., Skovdahl, O., Anmarkrud, Ø., Strømsø, H. I. (2025). Does reading still make you smarter? It depends. Reading and Writing. doi: 10.1007/s11145-025-10668-2 

Skovdahl, O., Salmerón, L., & Anmarkrud, Ø. (2025). When struggling readers meet the screen–A secondary analysis of ePIRLS 2016 data. Learning and Individual Differences, 118, pp.102623. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2024.102623

• Jørstad, Oscar Skovdahl; Gonzalez, Ladislao Salmeron & Anmarkrud, Øistein (2025). When struggling readers meet the screen – A secondary analysis of ePIRLS 2016 data. Learning and Individual Differences. ISSN 1041-6080. 118. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2024.102623. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Despite past efforts to investigate how students' interactions with digital devices shape their digital reading comprehension skills, we still need more knowledge about struggling readers in digital reading contexts. Previous research has shown that digital reading comprehension is negatively associated with general digital device usage and positively associated with some academic digital reading activities in the general student population. We used data from ePIRLS 2016 to investigate whether such patterns are related differently to struggling and nonstruggling readers. For struggling readers, we found that digital reading comprehension was negatively associated with the general use of digital devices for schoolwork. There was no statistically significant relationship between academic digital reading activities and digital reading comprehension. In contrast, this relationship was positively associated with digital reading comprehension among nonstruggling readers. We discuss how typical digital classroom activities may be differently related to digital reading comprehension depending on students' print reading comprehension skills.

• Bråten, Ivar; Jørstad, Oscar Skovdahl; Anmarkrud, Øistein & Strømsø, Helge Ivar (2025). Does reading still make you smarter? It depends. Reading and writing. ISSN 0922-4777. doi: 10.1007/s11145-025-10668-2. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The aim of this path-analytic study was to compare the predictability of reading experience operationalized as author recognition with the predictability of reading experience operationalized as the recognition of different types of websites for students’ verbal ability. Additionally, we investigated whether these measures predicted students’ verbal ability not only directly but also indirectly via their reading comprehension skills. As relevant control variables, we included students’ word recognition skills and their attitude toward reading. Results showed a direct positive effect of reading comprehension skills on verbal ability. There were also direct positive effects of reading experience operationalized as author recognition and reading experience operationalized as recognition of websites with news and cultural content on verbal ability. Thus, the better participants’ reading comprehension skills and the more experience they had reading books in print and news and cultural content on the web, the higher their verbal ability scores. Reading experience operationalized as author recognition and reading experience operationalized as recognition of websites with news and cultural content also had direct positive effects on reading comprehension, and author recognition had an indirect positive effect on verbal ability via reading comprehension. The recognition of websites with entertainment and social media content did not have any direct or indirect effects on verbal ability. These results suggest that experiences with reading printed books and websites containing news and cultural content may promote both reading comprehension skills and verbal ability, whereas web-based reading experiences with entertainment and social media content may not have such positive cognitive consequences

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• Jørstad, Oscar Skovdahl (2026). Elaborative feedback benefits struggling readers’ literal and inferential comprehension. doi: https:/www.earli.org/events/sig-2-biennial-conference-2026. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We examined whether elaborative feedback predicts literal and inferential comprehension for struggling readers, and whether these relationships changed over time. A cluster randomized trial study was designed, where 410 secondary school students participated in a computer-assisted intervention. Participants read one text per week and then responded to comprehension tasks. Students were given two attempts on each task and were given immediate feedback on their performance. If the first attempt was incorrect, students in the treatment condition were given information about what process the student should engage in (elaborative). In the control condition, participants received feedback which simply informed them about their incorrect response (corrective). Results reveal that elaborative feedback positively predicts inferential and literal comprehension. These relationships were moderated by pre-test reading comprehension skills, where elaborative feedback was especially beneficial for struggling readers. Further, we found that patterns of task performance for struggling and skilled readers remained stable over time in both feedback conditions.

• Jørstad, Oscar Skovdahl (2025). Course in "Linear mixed-effects modelling using R" (2 DAYS: 26 and 27 November 2025) – JURE DocMornings UV. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A two day course in linear mixed effects modelling was provided to PhD students at the University of Valencia in the fall 2025. The course covered the following topics: - Clustered data structures - Fixed and random effects - Model selection - Interpretation of level 1 and level 2 effects - Within -, between and contextual effects - Moderation analyses Day 1 was devoted to theoretical concepts and day 2 was devoted to working with linear mixed effects modelling in R using the lme4-package.

• Jørstad, Oscar Skovdahl (2025). Does reading still make you smarter? It depends. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The aim of this path-analytic study was to compare the predictability of reading experience operationalized as author recognition with the predictability of reading experience operationalized as the recognition of different types of websites for students’ verbal ability. Additionally, we investigated whether these measures predicted students’ verbal ability not only directly but also indirectly via their reading comprehension skills. As relevant control variables, we included students’ word recognition skills and their attitude toward reading. Results showed a direct positive effect of reading comprehension skills on verbal ability. There were also direct positive effects of reading experience operationalized as author recognition and reading experience operationalized as recognition of websites with news and cultural content on verbal ability. Thus, the better participants’ reading comprehension skills and the more experience they had reading books in print and news and cultural content on the web, the higher their verbal ability scores. Reading experience operationalized as author recognition and reading experience operationalized as recognition of websites with news and cultural content also had direct positive effects on reading comprehension, and author recognition had an indirect positive effect on verbal ability via reading comprehension. The recognition of websites with entertainment and social media content did not have any direct or indirect effects on verbal ability. These results suggest that experiences with reading printed books and websites containing news and cultural content may promote both reading comprehension skills and verbal ability, whereas web-based reading experiences with entertainment and social media content may not have such positive cognitive consequences

• Jørstad, Oscar Skovdahl (2025). Boosting Digital Reading Comprehension for Struggling Readers: The Effects of Elaborative Feedback. Full text in Research Archive
• Jørstad, Oscar Skovdahl (2025). Elever som strever med å lese: Hva betyr skjermbruk i skolen for dem? [Journal]. forskning.no. Full text in Research Archive
• Jørstad, Oscar Skovdahl; Gonzalez, Ladislao Salmeron & Anmarkrud, Øistein (2024). When Struggling Readers Meet the Screen: A Reanalysis of ePIRLS 2016 Data. Full text in Research Archive

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