People in modern society are continually bombarded with innumerable, conflicting information. Integrating multiple sources of information to learn about complex topics is a necessary skill for people in the society of knowledge. To deal with such complex tasks, people need to decide which information is noteworthy and trustworthy. Besides, they need to compare and integrate information from different sources. Such cognitive processing is mainly guided by the beliefs of knowledge and knowing - the epistemological beliefs.

A growing body of theories and studies indicate that epistemological beliefs play an important role in multiple-text comprehension. Still, our knowledge about the pattern of four dimensions of epistemological beliefs on multiple-text comprehension is limited. Therefore, it is important to develop our knowledge in this direction.

Based on current research, this study discusses the impact of epistemological beliefs on multiple-text comprehension, and finds out that simplicity of knowledge, certainty of knowledge and justification for knowledge have positive impact. In contrast, sources of knowledge do the opposite way, namely have negative influence. Comparing with the positive effect of epistemological beliefs in single-text comprehension, this pattern highlights the difference between single-text comprehension and multiple-text comprehension. The single-text comprehension is classified as the processing of deep-level of understanding, while the cognitive process of multiple-text comprehension focuses on integrating multiple texts of information.

The document model framework proposes “the constant mental representation” of the results of dealing with multiple texts on a particular topic. The document model proposes two different representations which are required to describe the multiple-text comprehension, namely the integrated mental model and the intertext model. People need to construct integrated mental model to represent the agreement and discrepancies of the content information of multiple-text. In addition to the integrated mental model, the document model framework provides the intertext model to represent the relationship between the contents and the resources in each multiple-text, also including the relationships among texts from various resources.

This research proposes that each dimension of epistemological beliefs has an impact on the development of mental representations of multiple-text comprehension (both the integrated mental model and the intertext model). Besides, epistemological beliefs’ impact on the components of mental representation is indirect. That is to say, variables such as epistemic emotions or cognitive strategies moderate the relationship between epistemological beliefs with mental representations of multiple-text comprehension. In addition, other variables such as reading goal or cultural difference, mediate the influence of epistemological beliefs on the mental representations of multiple-text comprehension.

To our knowledge, the coordination or reconciliation pattern of these moderating and mediating effects is not yet tested. As people with all levels of epistemological beliefs confront with multiple texts in information society, more studies on the relationship between epistemological beliefs and mental representations of multiple-text comprehension are needed, including research on how the moderating and mediating effects work.