Robinson, D., & Skinner, C. (1996). Why graphic organizers facilitate search processes: fewer words or computationally efficient indexing? Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21, 166-180.

Robinson, D.; Skinner, C.

1996

Robinson, D., & Skinner, C. (1996). Why graphic organizers facilitate search processes: fewer words or computationally efficient indexing? Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21, 166-180.

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Three experiments investigated how quickly and accurately students could locate information contained in different types of displays. Undergraduates read multiplechoice questions and then searched either texts, outlines, or graphic organizers to find information needed to answer the questions. In Experiments 1 and 2, students who searched either graphic organizers or outlines found answers to fact questions more quickly than those who searched text, and students who searched graphic organizers found answers to comparison questions more quickly than those who searched either outlines or text. In Experiment 3, all three displays contained the same number of words to remove a potential confound in Experiments 1 and 2. Results indicated that those who searched graphic organizers found the answer to a pattern question more quickly than those who searched either outlines or text. These findings suggest that the facilitative advantage of graphic organizers in locating information is attributable to computationally efficient indexing rather than fewer words.

In the first experiment, students who searched either outlines or matrices were able to answer factual questions more quickly than those who searched texts. Apparently outlines and matrices facilitated this local search due to their use of space to index critical categories of information better than text. There was no difference in the local search efficiency of outlines and matrices. This was probably due to the simplistic nature of the task.

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