Cognitive Alignment and Interpretive Disfluency in AR-Enhanced Literary Reading

1. Introduction

1.1. Topic and Relevance

In the field of technology-enhanced language learning, augmented reality (AR) has been heralded as a
means of enriching student engagement and facilitating deeper understanding. Yet despite encouraging
evidence for AR’s effects on vocabulary learning, engagement, and motivation (Akçayır & Akçayır,
2017; Belda-Medina & Marrahi-Gomez, 2023; Du et al., 2024; Lai & Chang, 2021), its potential to
support higher-order reading comprehension, particularly inferential reasoning, remains underexplored.

Drawing on cognitivist learning theory (Anderson, 2020; Bruner, 2002) and models of multimodal
comprehension (Paivio, 1986; Sweller, 1988), this study examined whether AR-enhanced literary
materials could scaffold inferential comprehension among advanced English as a Foreign Language
(EFL) learners. While prior research has emphasized AR’s motivational and lexical benefits, this project
focused on its cognitive effects: the extent to which visual and auditory scaffolds support or disrupt
meaning construction in complex interpretive tasks.

1.2. Aim of the Study

The study addressed the issue of how multimodal scaffolds affect inferential processing in literary
reading. Specifically, it tested whether immersive AR scenes can enhance inference-making in advanced
EFL readers, and how learners’ interpretive experiences mediate these effects. The study thus combined
performance-based assessment with qualitative reflection to understand not only what learners
comprehended, but how they made sense of the multimodal environment.

1.3. Research Questions

1) Does instruction using AR-enhanced literary materials improve inferential reading comprehension
compared to traditional methods?

2) How do learner-reported experienes help explain any observed differences in inferential

comprehension outcomes?

2. Methods

A quasi-experimental mixed-methods design was implemented with Spanish undergraduates enrolled in an

Applied Linguistics course. Forty-seven students (30 experimental, 17 control) completed pre- and post-tests of
inferential comprehension, each comprising multiple-choice and open-ended items targeting literary inference.
Both groups read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843) in digital format. The control group received
a traditional inference-based comprehension lesson, while the experimental group interacted with two AR
scenes created in Onirix Studio. These scenes included visual and auditory cues aligned with key moments in
the story: a dimly lit “eye” scene and an “auditory hallucination” scene featuring a synchronized heartbeat and
an animated wall clock.

Quantitative data were analyzed using paired- and independent-sample t-tests, and qualitative responses were
coded thematically in [Link] using a hybrid deductive–inductive approach.

3. Results

Quantitative results revealed no statistically significant gains in inferential comprehension for either group. The
control group improved slightly from 65% to 71% correct, whereas the AR group declined from 70% to 65%.
Crucially, this overall drop was almost entirely attributable to one test item (Q2) concerning the symbolic
meaning of the narrator’s auditory hallucination. While 97% of AR students answered Q2 correctly at pre-test,
only 70% did so post-intervention, in stark contrast to the control group, whose correct responses rose from 71%
to 94%.
Qualitative analysis illuminated the mechanism behind this pattern: five experimental participants explicitly
cited the clock introduced in the AR scene as the literal source of the sound. Student responses revealed a shift
from symbolic inference to causal misinterpretation. The clock—originally intended to reinforce the themes of
time and inevitability—thus acted as a salient but misleading cue, redirecting cognitive attention and disrupting
schema integration.

However, not all learners were misled. Several students displayed metacognitive insight, noting that “with AR
we are assuming things Poe might not have meant, like the clock on the wall.” Others described the experience
as emotionally immersive and cognitively stimulating, suggesting that such disfluency provoked reflective
engagement. These findings align with the concept of productive struggle (Bjork & Bjork, 2011; D’Mello et al.,
2012) and indicate that interpretive breakdowns may also serve as learning catalysts.

4. Conclusions

While AR did not yield measurable gains in inferential comprehension, the “clock effect” highlights an essential
tension in immersive pedagogy: multimodal cues can either scaffold or derail higher-order cognition depending
on their cognitive alignment. From a theoretical standpoint, this phenomenon illustrates how perceptually
significant but pedagogically misaligned cues can overload working memory and fragment textual coherence.
Yet, the same disruptions may also invite metacognitive repair and deeper reflection.

The study concludes that AR’s pedagogical promise is at least partly contingent upon teachers’ ability to
recognize and leverage interpretive disfluencies as opportunities for guided reflection. Future designs should
balance technical reliability, incremental multimodal sequencing, and real-time scaffolding to harness confusion
as a generative facet of comprehension.

5. References
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