Complex texts like poetry are distinct from informative texts, requiring additional subprocesses to decode and interpret. Approaching a poem without knowledge of these cognitive strategies can result in confusion and frustration—rather than comprehension. In this work, we explore how interfaces can surface and demonstrate these cognitive processes to novice readers. We introduce Soliloquy, an interface that visualizes the thoughts of an expert as they read and interpret a poem by using animations of text and pop-up tooltips. We evaluate the interface in a five-condition Mechanical Turk study (n=254) by varying the detail of thoughts, including audio, and substituting a static text control. Our study detected a significant difference in comprehension between the detail of thoughts, but not between the Soliloquy interface and static text control. We further investigate this finding in a think-aloud study (n=13), revealing the impact individual differences, experience, and cognitive load could have on Soliloquy’s effectiveness.

While prior research has revealed the promising impact of concept mapping on learning, few have comprehensively modeled different cognitive behaviors during concept mapping. In addition, existing concept mapping tools lack effective feedback to support better learning behaviors. This work presents MindDot, a concept map-based learning environment that facilitates the cognitive process of comparing and integrating related concepts via two forms of support. A hyperlink support and an expert template. Study results suggested that both types of support had positive impact on the development of comparative strategies and that hyperlink support enhanced learning. We further evaluated the cognitive learning progress at a fine-grained level with two forms of visualizations. We then extracted several behavioral patterns that provided insights about the cognitive progress in learning. Lastly, we derive design recommendations that we hope will inspire future intelligent tutoring systems that automatically evaluate students' learning behaviors and foster them in developing effective learning behaviors