Multiple R = .94
Adjusted R² = .87

Easy tasks on the prose literacy scale tended to require readers to make a literal match on the basis of a single piece of concrete information where few, if any, distractors were present in the text. Tasks further along the prose scale become somewhat more varied. While some may still require a single feature match, more distracting information may be present in the text or the match may require a low text-based inference. Some tasks may require the reader to cycle through information to arrive at a correct response. Tasks that are more difficult can take on a variety of characteristics. They may still require the reader to make a match, but usually the reader has to match on multiple features or take conditional information into account. Tasks may also require the reader to integrate information from within a text or to provide multiple responses. The most difficult tasks typically require the reader to make higher-level inferences, process conditional information, and deal with highly plausible distracting information.

Characterizing document literacy tasks

There are 34 tasks ordered along the IALS 500-point document literacy scale. These tasks range in difficulty value from 182 to 408. One document literacy task with a difficulty value of 188 directs the reader to identify from a chart the percentage of teachers from Greece who are women. The chart shown here displays the percentage of teachers from various countries who are women. In terms of our process variables, type of match (TOM) was scored a 1 because the reader was required to locate a single piece of information that was literally stated in the chart; type of information (TOI) received a 2 because it was an amount; and plausibility of distractor (POD) is also scored a 2 because there are distractors for the requested information.

A second document task involving this same chart directs the reader to identify the country other than the Netherlands in which women teachers are in the minority. This item received a difficulty value of 234. This task was made a bit more difficult than the first because rather than searching on a country and locating a percentage, the readers had to know that minority means less than 50%. Then they had to cycle through to identify the countries in which the percentage of women teachers was less then 50%. In addition, they had to remember the condition "other than the Netherlands"; otherwise, they might have chosen it over the correct response. As a result, type of match was scored a 3; type of information was scored a 1 because the requested information is a country or place; and plausibility of distractor was given a 2 because there are distractors associated with the requested information.