ABSTRACT
Finding relevant texts is no longer the main problem; rather the problem is one of adaptive time allocation among multiple relevant texts. Good texts for learning therefore fall in the middle ground that M. B. W. Wolfe, M. E. Schreiner, B. Rehder, D. Laham, P. W. Foltz, W. Kintsch & T. K. Landauer call the zone of learnability. At least one task facing the self-directed learner is to allocate his or her time selectively to texts that fall within this zone of learnability and ignore the rest. The chapter provides a number of experiments on reading multiple texts under time pressure, investigating the prevalence of sampling and satisficing strategies and the effectiveness of these strategies for the preferential allocation of time among texts. One of the findings in the optimal foraging literature that is particularly relevant to the issue of selective browsing is that animals will sample unfamiliar food patches in order to decide which to exploit.
