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In 2 experiments, students who lacked prior knowledge about car mechanics read a passage about vehicle braking systems that either contained labeled illustrations of the systems, illustrations without labels, labels without illustrations, or no labeled illustrations. Students who received passages that contained labeled illustrations of braking systems recalled more explanative than nonexplanative information as compared to control groups, and performed better on problem solving transfer but not on verbatim recognition as compared to control groups. Results support a model of meaningful learning in which illustrations can help readers to focus their attention on explanative information in text and to reorganize ...

In 2 experiments, students who lacked prior knowledge about car mechanics read a passage about vehicle braking systems that either contained labeled illustrations of the systems, illustrations without labels, labels without illustrations, or no labeled illustrations. Students who received passages that contained labeled illustrations of braking systems recalled more explanative than nonexplanative information as compared to control groups, and performed better on problem solving transfer but not on verbatim recognition as compared to control groups. Results support a model of meaningful learning in which illustrations can help readers to focus their attention on explanative information in text and to reorganize ...

Guidelines for designing information charts often state that the presentation should reduce ‘chart junk’ – visual embellishments that are not essential to understanding the data. In contrast, some popular chart designers wrap the presented data in detailed and elaborate imagery, raising the questions of whether this imagery is really as detrimental to understanding as has been proposed, and whether the visual embellishment may have other benefits. To investigate these issues, we conducted an experiment that compared embellished charts with plain ones, and measured both interpretation accuracy and long-term recall. We found that people’s accuracy in describing the embellished charts was ...

Previous on-line studies of text processing have established a so-called topic-shift effect: Sentences that initiate a new topic in a text are given additional processing time by skilled adult readers. The present study was designed to investigate this phenomenon further among experienced and less experienced readers. In Experiment 1, the processing of topic shifts was examined among adult readers and fifth graders of at least average comprehension ability; in Experiment 2, adults were contrasted with good and poor fifth-grade comprehenders. Two modes of text presentation were applied: one where topic boundaries were visually signalled by paragraphing, and another where sentences ...

Previous on-line studies of text processing have established a so-called topic-shift effect: Sentences that initiate a new topic in a text are given additional processing time by skilled adult readers. The present study was designed to investigate this phenomenon further among experienced and less experienced readers. In Experiment 1, the processing of topic shifts was examined among adult readers and fifth graders of at least average comprehension ability; in Experiment 2, adults were contrasted with good and poor fifth-grade comprehenders. Two modes of text presentation were applied: one where topic boundaries were visually signalled by paragraphing, and another where sentences ...

A taxonomy of the categories of information depicted in picture-text instructions for two procedural assembly tasks was developed and used experimentally. Three categories of information were hypothesized to be the important and perhaps even essential information for successful execution of the procedures. Various combinations of information were presented to 108 subjects, each in one of 36 instructional conditions. Comparison of performance date for two tasks indicated that subjects using "complete" instructions finished the assemblies in significantly less time and with significantly fewer errors than did those using "incomplete" instructions, thus confirming the experimental hypothesis. ...

A chapter of expository text was presented on a CRT with optional 'windowing' of definitions of selected words varying in relevance to each screen's main ideas. A test treatment was interposed to influence reading strategies. Dependent variables included text reading time, frequency of definition 'calls', definition reading rates, and scores on a final comprehension test. Results indicate that a technical chapter can be read from a CRT with appreciable content retention. Subjects accessed 80% of available definitions, but those able to 'call' content-relevant definitions increased their frequency of definition 'calls'. Definition reading rate diminished; comprehension and processing time increased only ...

The information content of picture-text instructions for two assembly tasks was classified according to a taxonomy of Information ( Bieger & Glock, 1984). The location, in picture or text, of spatial, contextual, and operational information was then experimentally manipulated and the effect on comprehension was assessed by measuring the speed and accuracy of perform ance of 120 undergraduate students. It was found that textual presentation of spatial information produced fewer errors, while pictorial presentation of spatial information reduced performance times dramatically. It was further found that pictorial presentation of contextual information substantially reduced assembly times and slightly reduced the ...

Powerpointslides met opsommingen worden vaak als saai ervaren. Communicatieadviseurs bevelen daarom aan om visualiseringen toe te passen. Onderzoek dat deze adviezen onderbouwt, is echter zo goed als afwezig. Om de waarde van deze communicatieadviezen te onderzoeken, wordt de effectiviteit onderzocht van slides met tekst en slides met visualiseringen ten opzichte van een presentatie zonder ondersteuning. Uit het experiment bleek dat powerpoint-ondersteuning effectief was: de groep zonder powerpoint scoorde significant slechter op de kennistest dan de groepen die wel ondersteuning kregen. De groep die de tekstslides kreeg, scoorde significant beter dan de groep die de visualiseringen zag. Na een week bleek ...

Computer-based learning environments commonly comprise symbolic as well as static and dynamic pictorial representations, frequently combined with the possibility of modifying them interactively. While multiple, dynamic and interactive external representations have the potential to improve learning in various ways, they also place specific demands on learners, such as the need to process and relate different representations, to control and evaluate interactions with these representations, and to construct coherent mental representations. Because learners frequently are not able to meet these demands, the presentation of multiple, dynamic and interactive representations might not only not improve but might even impede learning. Starting from ...