A theoretical framework for research on learning from graphics

doi:10.1016/0883-0355(90)90025-4

International Journal of Educational Research

Volume 14, Issue 6, 1990, Pages 553-564

https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-0355(90)90025-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

Recent advances in computer software and hardware have made it easy for people without skill in instructional design to create diagrams, charts and graphs, and have led to the inclusion of these graphics in all manner of applications. The development of a theory of how people learn from graphics leading to a prescriptive theory for their design is therefore urgently required. Such a theory must consist of a thorough description of the symbol system of graphics and of an account of how the symbolic elements of graphics influence preattentive and attentive perceptual and cognitive processes that lead to their interpretation by students. This chapter sketches such a theory and illustrates it with research on visual perception and learning from graphics.

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Cited by (26)

Development of students’ text-picture integration and reading competence across grades 5–7 in a three-tier secondary school system: A longitudinal study
2017, Contemporary Educational Psychology
Citation Excerpt :
Icons are signs associated with their referent by similarity (as in the case of realistic pictures) or by a more abstract structural commonality (as in the case of graphs). For picture comprehension, students create an internal visual representation of the graphical display through perceptual processing, which includes identifying and discriminating graphic entities as well as visually organizing these entities according to Gestalt laws (Wertheimer, 1938; Winn, 1990). The resulting visual perception is kept in the imagery part of working memory (Baddeley, 1999; Kruley, Sciama, & Glenberg, 1994; Sims & Hegarty, 1997).
375 students from 24 randomly selected classes of a three-tier secondary school system were tested in a longitudinal study for their text-picture integration and pure reading competence as well as verbal and spatial intelligence at grades 5–7. Data were analyzed according to the integrated model of text and picture comprehension using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. Results indicate that text-picture integration comprises higher spatial cognitive demands than pure reading. School tiers differed in terms of competency levels, but also in terms of growth rates of text-picture integration competence. Differences between lower tiers and higher tiers for text-picture integration competence became smaller from grade to grade, whereas developmental trajectories of reading competence ran parallel to each other. The study reveals that the skills for the conjoint processing of text and pictures develop in a way that might help especially poorer students in lower school tiers to catch up with their mates in higher tiers as compared to the competence of pure reading. Text-picture integration seems to provide gradually better opportunities for less capable learners to compensate for previous lags in their learning.
On Children's Understanding of an Economic Concept: The Role of Graphics in Evaluation
1994, Advances in Psychology
The main goal was to study the possibility of utilizing graphical devices in evaluating 12 year-olds' acquisition of economic concepts presented in a lecture. Two line-graphs representing the demand and supply laws, and a chart diagram representing the causal chain of the concepts were used in the evaluation tasks. The tasks involving the chart were a completion, a reconstruction, and a reading task. Subjects were asked to complete the missing values of the concepts, to link the concepts positioning in the chart, and to read the chart. Furthermore, students were required to state the law represented in each line-graph, and to choose the correct formulation of the law among three alternatives. Several patterns of responses, showing the subjects' misconceptions and misunderstandings of the laws, were revealed. Some patterns were found to be more typical than other ones; moreover, the appeared to vary, depending on the task structure and demand. Some difficulties were found in reading the line-graphs, which should be taken into account when they are utilized in teaching. Although the specific patterns could vary across tasks, significant correlations were found among performances, suggesting the usefulness of the graphics in evaluating students' learning.
Ľobjectif principal de cette recherche est ďétudier la possibilité ďutiliser des moyens graphiques pour évaluer ľacquisition, chez des enfants de 12 ans, de concepts ďéconomie présentés dans un cours. Deux courbes représentant les lois de ľoffre et de la demande, et un diagramme représentant la chaine causale des concepts ont été utilisés dans des tâches ďévaluation. Les tâches impliquant le diagramme étaient des tâches de complètement, de reconstruction et de lecture. On demandait aux sujets de compléter les valeurs manquantes des concepts, de relier les positions des concepts dans le diagramme, et de lire le diagramme. De plus, les étudiants devaient établir la loi représentée par chaque courbe et choisir la formulation correcte de la loi parmi trois possibilités.
Plusieurs patterns de réponses sont apparus, révélant les idées fausses et les erreurs des sujets concernant les lois. Certains patterns se sont révélés plus typiques que ďautres. De plus, il est apparu que ces patterns varient selon la structure et les exigences de la tâche. Un certain nombre de difficultés sont apparues dans la lecture des courbes, qui devraient ětre prises en compte quand on veut utiliser ces graphiques dans ľenseignement. Bien que les patterns spécifiques puissent varier selon les tâches, des corrélations significatives sont trouvées entre les performances, suggérant ľutilité des graphiques dans ľévaluation de ľapprentissage.
Introduction
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Using maps to retrieve text: A test of conjoint retention
1992, Contemporary Educational Psychology
Two experiments tested the conjoint retention model by having undergraduates learn an intact map and text, and then see the map as a retrieval cue, in either its original form or a reorganized format. Subjects remembered more text events when cued by the original map. The pattern of results supports the assumption that image representations of maps improve text recall only when they retain both feature and structural properties available during encoding.
Editing visual media
1998, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Multiple mental representations in picture processing
2022, Psychological Research

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Chapter 6A theoretical framework for research on learning from graphics

Abstract

Acta Psychologica

International Journal of Man-Machine Studies

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

International Journal of Man-Machine Studies

Cognitive Psycholgoy

Global-local precedence in picture processing

Psychological Research

Evidence for global feature superiority in menu selection by icons

Behaviour and Information Technology

Graphics and graphic information processing

Semiology of graphics

The effect of real-time laboratory graphing on learning graphic representations of distance and velocity

Journal of Research in Science Teaching

Difficulties in constructing and interpreting graphs

Is Posner's “Beam” the same as Treisman's “Glue”? On the relation between visual orienting and feature integration theory

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Reconsidering research on learning from media

Review of Educational Research

Graphical perception: Theory, experimentation, and application to the development of graphical methods

Journal of the American Statistical Association

Graphical perception and graphical methods for analyzing scientific data

Science

Has the time come to rehabilitate Gestall Psychology?

Psychological Research

Computer menu design: An investigation of the interface between user characteristics and menu structures

Australian Psychologist

SemNet: Software for student or faculty construction of large relational networks of concepts

Human performance evaluation of alternative graphic display symbologies

Perceptual and Motor Skills

Does the identification of simple features require serial processing?

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Research into illustration

The analysis of illustration in theory and practice

Koffka's Principles after fifty years

Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

STEAMER: An interactive inspectable simulation-based training system

The AI Magazine

Knowledge-based computer graphics: Intersections of AI and computer graphics

The student as grapher: Microcomputer-assisted thinking skills

Transition from page to screen

Selective attention to global and local levels in the comparison of hierarchical patterns

Perception and Psychophysics

The order of visual processing: “Top-down”, “bottom-up”, or “middle-out”?

Perception and Psychophysics

Attending to different levels of structure in a visual image

Perception and Psychophysics

Understanding charts and graphs: A project in applied cognitive psychology

ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 238 687

Overview

Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand word?

Cognitive Science

Optimizing the design of menu pages for information retrieval

Ergonomics

Chapter 6
A theoretical framework for research on learning from graphics