ABSTRACT. Positive attitudes towards reading have been associated to better text comprehension. However, research has not been conclusive enough about this issue, especially at the beginning of the schooling. This work focuses on the literacy attitudes of pupils from two different countries just at the time when they start to learn to read. The participants were 1257 first and second graders from Spain and Finland. Results show that, in general, pupils hold a positive attitude towards literacy. However, girls tend to hold more positive attitudes than boys and first graders than second graders in both countries. Furthermore, Spanish pupils maintain more positive attitudes than their peers in Finland. However, reading attitudes are not related to reading achievement neither in Spain nor in Finland. From these findings, some educational implications are discussed.

ABSTRACT. This study examined how participants reconciled disagreements between experts on two controversial technology topics (i.e., whether or not employers should base management decisions on employees’ social media accounts; the benefits and drawbacks of video games in the classroom). Three profiles of reconciling expert disagreement were identified. Participants either (a) ignored expert disagreement, (b) acknowledged expert disagreement and ultimately decided in favor of one position or another, or (c) qualified experts’ positions to reconcile conflict. The mode of reconciling expert disagreement was found to be associated with participants’ epistemic beliefs about authority as the sources of knowledge. Further, mode of reconciling expert disagreement was found to be associated with participants’ certainty in their own position, following reading two conflicting expert texts.

ABSTRACT. Research has not focused on possible side effects, on learning or problem solving, of seemingly trivial illustrations in textbooks. In this study, we question the influence of visualizations of cultural symbols and values in a reward allocation task. Participants were exposed to visualizations which represented American or neutral cultural concepts, in conjunction with the principles of distributive justice: equity or equality. Participants then completed a reward allocation task. The results showed an influence of American cultural symbols on the outcome of reward allocation but when no distributive justice principle was involved. However, visualization of the principles of distributive justice did not have the expected effect on reward allocation. More research is needed to investigate the influence of these types of visualizations and to define their role in task performance.

ABSTRACT. A particular difficulty in physics learning is the fact that pupils’ “intuitive” concepts are often resistant to instruction. Two quasi-experimental conditions (TG A and B) were implemented (N = 511), that differed with regard to the extent of cognitive activation while dealing with multiple representations and widespread intuitive concepts. Both conditions were compared with each other as well as with the results of a control group (CG C) learning with conventional tasks (N = 218) provided by a related study II. Results from multilevel analysis indicated that tasks addressing widespread intuitive pupils’ concepts improved conceptual understanding significantly more than conventional task showing medium-term stability.

ABSTRACT. Like numbers, lengths, and durations, values of energy consumption are magnitudes. A magnitude can be presented in graphical or numerical format. Numerical and offline cognition research suggest that presentation format affects internal representations and offline cognitive processes, making different formats better suited for different tasks. In an empirical study on 92 participants, we determined that presenting energy consumption in a numerical format was better suited for direct recall, whereas a graphical format was better suited for offline mental comparisons. This confirms the hypotheses and suggests the use of graphical rather than numerical presentation formats for energy consumption.

ABSTRACT. Research has shown that a political candidate’s success is based on a decision that takes less than one tenth of a second to make. Voters can make these quick judgments about political candidates based on their facial morphology—specifically, competence. The perception of facial competence is the strongest predictor of electoral success, which suggests that voters rely heavily on facial appearance when deciding which candidate to vote for. The present investigation aims to specifically analyze how the competence and gender of a political candidate combined with the competence and gender of the candidate’s competitor influences perceptual measures such as overall impression, and candidate characteristics remembered; as well as behavioral measures such as the magnitude of a financial donation to a candidate’s campaign. Results indicate that perceptions of a candidate are influenced by the competence level and gender of the competitor whom the candidate is competing against.

ABSTRACT. Prior research indicated that stimuli presented near the hands are processed differently: visuospatial processing is fostered, whereas semantic processing is inhibited. This follow-up study investigated this issue during multi-touch interaction. Participants interacted with paintings and texts on a multi-touch table and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (hand-proximity: near vs. far). They either touched the objects directly (near) or manipulated the objects indirectly by touching placeholders of the objects (far). Moreover, the time of contact between the hands and the objects/placeholders (duration of touch) was considered. Results showed for learning about visuospatial information an interaction between hand-proximity and duration of touch: Visuospatial learning was fostered near the hands, but only for longer touch-durations. However, learning about semantic information was in this study in contrary to a previous study not influenced by the manipulation of hand-proximity. The results and implications for interactions on multi-touch displays are discussed.

ABSTRACT. The signaling principle states that highlighting correspondences in text and picture supports learning from multimedia materials. A recent meta-analysis with mostly lab studies revealed that the domain-specific prior knowledge of learners moderates the signaling effect. To investigate the influence of prior knowledge on the effectiveness of signaling in an ecologically valid context, we conducted a field study with 8th graders in schools. They learned either with a digital textbook containing mainly text signals or additional multimedia signals aiming at supporting integration of text and pictures (e.g., color coding, deictic references). Results revealed that low prior knowledge learners profited from multimedia integration signals whereas these additional signals were detrimental for the learning performance of high prior knowledge learners. This result is in line with the expertise reversal effect and might be relevant for the design of multimedia material and the usage of individualized instructions in digital learning environments.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the use of drawing to assess medical students understanding of anatomy. 98 1st year medical students drew the features of the heart either pre or post whole body dissection. In addition, 46 3rd years on clinical placement were given the same instructions. Drawings were coded for informational content and for representations choices. We predicted that 3rd years would score higher than 1st years and that dissection would improve drawings. Analysis by two [3 by 1] MANOVAs did not confirm these predictions. Whilst 3rd years drew the shape of the heart more appropriately, specific structures were less accurate, and 1st years drew the heart more accurately prior to than post dissection. We suggest that students came with expectations formed by textbooks and popular culture. Dissection did not immediately improve these inaccurate models; if anything it served to destabilize their understanding without replacing it with anything more correct.

ABSTRACT. Infographics combine text with images to represent complex data. Since combining text and pictures has proven to be fruitful for learning, infographics could be too. Although infographics are commonly used and said to be efficient, hardly any research has been done on how people use this combination of text and images to understand information. We don’t yet know whether, and if so, how, infographics are able to give insight. We asked 128 participants to think aloud while trying to understand three infographics on environmental issues. Results of the think-aloud protocols will be presented in Geneva.

ABSTRACT. We have developed four research instruments in the context of a study on reading strategies among first year university students. In order to assure quality and reliability when assessing strategy use, validated instruments are highly valued. Rubrics will be used to measure students’ actual strategy use and its quality, whereas their perception of their strategy use will be measured through a self-report questionnaire. This presentation will describe the development and validation process of these instruments.

ABSTRACT. We investigated whether translating a problem into an equation can be facilitated by dynamic and interactive visualization for novice learners. A simulation game was designed to support students’ learning by providing a concrete representation of a word problem that was related to an equation. Two experimental groups tested each one a different version of the game and were compared to a control group. In the Visualize Condition, students could visualize the relation between the concrete representation and an equation whereas in the Check condition, the learners could verify an equation but without linking it visually with the concrete representation. Other means of visualization were also provided to facilitate students’ learning which proved to be efficient. The results show that the use of visualization tools dealing with one representation at a time, rather than two, lead to better understanding and learning of translating a word problem in an equation.

ABSTRACT. Recent studies have demonstrated that a written trivia claim of an unknown veracity, paired with a semantically related photograph, results in judgment that the claim is true. This effect is known as “truthiness”. Research on truthiness has been limited by two factors including, 1) only measuring written claims’ veracity, and 2) ignoring source trustworthiness. Therefore, we designed a 2 (Photograph: present vs. absent) X 2 (Source Trustworthiness: High vs. low) experiment, to understand the interaction of semantically related photographs on audio statements of varying trustworthiness. Results indicate trustworthiness of the source did not impact perception of truth. In addition, results of a paired-samples t-test indicated that claims were more likely to be perceived as true when a photograph was present (versus absent), t(190) = 3.79, p = .00. This finding provides evidence that “Truthiness” generalizes beyond a written message and can arise in an audio channel of communication.

ABSTRACT. Modeling evolutionary relationships among organisms, phylogenetic trees can be either used as models of existing hypotheses or for the prediction of new hypotheses. Accordingly, they can be applied as medium and method, respectively, demanding different levels of model competence. Using and reflecting representations of these biology-specific models require representational competence. So far, studies indicate students being most often on a low level. As phylogenetic trees are highly visual representations, our aim is to investigate the consistency of students’ visual perception and their verbal reasoning when working on tasks about evolutionary relationships. Furthermore, we examine the impact of the scenario in which a PT as a model is used on students’ visual perception and verbal reasoning, respectively. Our study will uncover visual processes during tree reading and students’ levels of representational competence when handling PTs either as medial or methodical models.

ABSTRACT. Given the limited number of studies addressing secondary school students’ intrinsic reading motivation and reading comprehension and thereby the impact of student characteristics, the aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between intrinsic reading motivation and reading comprehension in secondary school students and to clarify whether this relationship is moderated by students’ gender, educational track, socio-economic status, and home language. To pursue this aim, a secondary analysis was carried out on PISA 2009 data. More particularly, data of 4269 Flemish 15-year olds were examined by means of multilevel modeling. The results provide evidence for the significance of the relation between intrinsic reading motivation and reading comprehension. Further, girls, socio-economic advantaged students, and students in the general secondary education track reported higher levels of intrinsic reading motivation and reading comprehension. Home language was significantly and negatively related to students’ intrinsic reading motivation, but not to their reading comprehension.

ABSTRACT. While learning can elicit strong positive and negative emotions, learners’ emotional and motivational dispositions during learning is believed to strongly affect learning outcomes. In this experimental study, 30 participants learned with one of two versions of an instructional animation offering an introduction animation to quantum physics. In the positive version, the commentary was narrated with a happy tone whereas in the neutral version, the narration was narrated with a neutral prosody. The participants’ level of individual interest for Physics was measured prior to the experiment. The results showed that participants with high interest had better comprehension scores and experienced more positive and less negative emotions than participants with low interest. However, no effect of emotional prosody was found, except on frustration and interest.

ABSTRACT. Readers’ ability to comprehend a text is often mistaken for their reading skills or for what they learn from a text and thus its assessment remains difficult. The aim of this research is to compare three tests currently used to assess text comprehension, in order to determine which test better predicts readers’ ability to comprehend an explanatory instructional document. The material is a multimedia document including a text of high or low cohesion, with static pictures. This is an ongoing study for which data will be collected in spring 2016. The results will facilitate the assessment of readers’ comprehension ability as a pre-test measure for future research in multimedia learning.

ABSTRACT. The creation of tactile pictures for blind people is a field that has seen some real progress over the last few years. The concept of “tactile picture” covers a whole range of devices which reproduce different kinds of visual content when touched, like paintings and illustrations in children’s picture books. Nevertheless, in order for these images to be used in pedagogy, they must, above all, be understandable. In this paper we present a review of cognitive studies about blind people’s comprehension of tactile pictures. These studies have been major contributors to our understanding of how our sense of touch works. They have also allowed us to define which material or formal properties are the most important in real objects, in order to help designers translate these elements into tactile illustrated books for blind children.

ABSTRACT. In recent years the role hypervideo can play in fostering learning has considerably increased. Different scholars pointed out that the use of its interactive features can be a valuable instructional strategy to support learning. However, this strategy is often limited to individual settings, where students use it alone. Other uses of hypervideo for learning, as well as their implementation in authentic classrooms have been poorly investigated so far. This study aims to test four different instructional uses of hypervideo in vocational school contexts. Four classes (N=38) of first-year students from a clothing-design curriculum were involved, assigned to four conditions with respect to the use of hypervideo: plenary lesson, individual use, authoring the hypervideo in groups, and no hypervideo (control group). Results show that hypervideo represents an effective way to learn and an incentive for student's motivation and give useful indication for teachers/trainers willing to use hypervideos in their practice.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the contribution of thinking style and critical thinking skills to the comprehension of multiple documents through a think-aloud procedure. Twenty-five Italian college students were assessed in terms of prior beliefs, topic interest, rational-experiential thinking, critical thinking skills, and topic knowledge. Then, they were asked to read six documents on flu vaccination and to think-aloud. Protocols were coded for reading comprehension and epistemic cognition activity. Students were also asked to write an essay on flu vaccination. We identified two profiles, experiential versus critical-rational thinker. Critical-rational students showed more epistemic activity when engaging with controversial texts, reported more sources in their essay on the topic, and showed better memory of the original sources than the experiential students did.

ABSTRACT. We propose cognitive competence models of text and graph comprehension that are theoretically motivated and take depth of understanding, task content and the type of task response into account. The resulting items should address cognitive processes that are defined by the Construction-Integration Model (Kintsch, 1988) and Model of Text-Picture Integration (Schnotz & Bannert, 2003). The assessment of text and graph comprehension should include tasks that address cognitive processes specific to text and graph comprehension, such as mapping between different mental representations. We propose three cognitive competence models that put a focus on different cognitive processes. These cognitive competence models could contribute to the discussion on construct validity in educational assessment.

ABSTRACT. Children 3-to5-years-old (N=115) were invited to draw one flower, three flowers and write numbers. The Beery Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI) (Berry & Buktenica, 1997) is used to test the children’s visual and motor abilities. Drawing tasks were used to investigate children quantity concept. One-Way and correlational analyses indicate that for quantity and writing number there is a progressive development. There is a relationship for these two ability at 3 and 4 years old but not at 5 years old. At 5 years, the quantity concept does not seem relate with the number writing ability. The oculo-motor ability is an important ability to write number conventionally.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the use of static vs. dynamic visualizations for learning declarative and procedural information about computer networks. Previous research has not provided a consensus on when dynamic and static visualizations are most appropriate for learning, however the literature points to differences between the two types of visualizations for the acquisition of declarative and procedural knowledge. The results of this study suggest that dynamic visualizations are more appropriate for learning a procedural task than static visualizations.

ABSTRACT. Learner-generated drawing stimulates deep text comprehension and, thereby, promotes text-based learning. By drawing illustrations of text contents, learners actively engage in elaborative comprehension processes such as identifying knowledge gaps, drawing inferences, and comprehension monitoring. We assume that stimulating these processes is particularly beneficial for learning with low-cohesion texts, given that sufficient prior knowledge is available. The present study investigated the effect of learner-generated drawing as a function of text cohesion and prior knowledge. Learners were presented with a high- or low-cohesion text. Half of them were instructed to draw the text contents during learning. Learning efficiency was assessed via a multiple-choice test. Results suggest that learners benefit more from high- compared to low-cohesion texts. Moreover, learner-generated drawing improved learning with texts for learners with high prior knowledge. We conclude that learner-generated drawing promotes text-based learning by stimulating comprehension processes that draw upon learners’ prior knowledge such as drawing knowledge-based inferences.

ABSTRACT. Abstract: The present study was a two phase, mixed methods study of children’s writing with a quantitative phase followed by a qualitative phase. In the quantitative phase a test of children’s metalinguistic awareness (MLA) was positively correlated to a test of writing achievement. The qualitative data consisted of a writing sample, concurrent think aloud and an interview. The qualitative data showed that children varied in their ability to comprehend and to reflect upon their own written texts. It seems that this ability to comprehend and reflect upon their own writing may be linked to children’s writing attainment. Children who show increased MLA by comprehending and reflecting on their own writing at increased levels of sophistication were also better writers. The following poster reports on children’s comprehension of their own texts.

(The claims made in this abstract and paper will be supported with graphs and charts which are currently being compiled).

ABSTRACT. This study will investigate whether melody can function as an anchor for learning a song’s lyrics. Processing lyrics and melody of a song simultaneously leads to two highly linked information systems in memory. Stimulating the melody should therefore activate the lyrics and foster retrieval. On the other hand, listening to another melody should make retrieval more difficult, especially when the other melody is linked with different lyrics. 80 participants are going to learn two different, carefully normed, songs with different melodies and lyrics. In the testing phase, the participants will answer questions to measure recall, two levels of comprehension, and the quality of their mental model. We empirically varied whether the participants listen to either the melody of the song about which they are answering questions, the other song, an unknown melody, or no melody. The post-test will be repeated after one week, with the same variation of the music.

ABSTRACT. The aim of the current study was to investigate upper-secondary school students’ justifications for selections of multiple documents when solving an academic task (prepare a class presentation on two socio-scientific topics). We provided 25 students with 20 fictive documents on each topic and instructed them to select as many documents as they needed in order to solve the task. The documents varied in terms of task relevance and source credibility. We interviewed the students after the document selection and asked them to justify their selections. Analysis showed that the justifications could be divided into three prominent categories; 1) relevance, 2) source, and 3) topic familiarity with relevance mainly referring to the nature and norms of the task, source addressing author’s expertise and intentions, and topic familiarity referring to how the selected documents either confirmed students’ prior knowledge on the topic or, alternatively, provided supplementary information needed to solve the task.

ABSTRACT. A well-known finding in research on multimedia learning is that presenting unnecessary or irrelevant additional information hampers learning. However, eye-tracking research suggests that participants quickly learn to ignore irrelevant information with task experience. We established in a prior study that negative effects on learning indeed disappeared over time, but it is unclear whether people learn to ignore the location, or the irrelevant content. We therefore examined whether changing the location of irrelevant information after participants learned to ignore it, would reinstate negative effects on learning. Participants first learned ten words accompanied by meaningful or irrelevant pictures in two blocks of five words with the pictures always appearing at the same location. In the third block, the location of the pictures switched for half of the participants. Switching the location of the pictures did not affect test performance, which suggests that participants actively inhibit attending to irrelevant information.

ABSTRACT. Textbooks often pair texts with graphics in an attempt to increase interest, engagement, and learning from text. However, processing texts and graphics may require more cognitive effort than processing text alone. This may be problematic for students attempting to overcome misconceptions – previously learned information or conceptions that are scientifically inaccurate. Refutation texts have proven to be very successful at helping students overcome these misconceptions. In the present investigation, we wanted to extend the current literature on text-graphic processing to include both refutation texts and refutation graphics. In the present study, we presented students with either a refutation text or an expository text, and paired these texts with either a refutation graphic or an expository graphic. Results revealed that while the graphics failed to influence understanding, they nevertheless functioned to prompt students to identify the conflict with prior knowledge.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the teacher’s video on learning with online courses. Several studies have shown two possible effects of a teacher’s video introduction. First, as video delivers more social cues than an audio explanation, it can motivate students to engage in a deeply process of information (social-cues hypothesis). Besides, the teacher’s video can also distract students’ visual attention from pedagogical content on-screen such as diagrams (interference hypothesis) in comparison with a spoken only presentation. Eye-tracker data showed that students spent only 25% of their time on the teacher’s video when it was provided. No interference effect was observed on learning but a positive effect appeared on retention regarding spoken information.

ABSTRACT. This presentation is a part of a PhD project called: The place of intercultural approaches in the teacher training and teacher’s work in Geneva. In this thesis we have one main objective, which is: analyzing how intercultural approaches and cultural diversity are integrated to the educational system of Geneva. This presentation will focus on the didactics ‘training because we think that intercultural approaches must be global and not just a specific topic. Living in world of diversity implies thinking through diversity; therefore we imagine that texts and graphics must be adapted to this aspect. Didactics ‘training can be a way for pre service teachers to learn how to adapt texts and graphics to a culturally diverse environment. Through interviews we aim to analyze how the didactics ’training in Geneva take account the cultural diversity factor.

ABSTRACT. Research has separately shown the positive effects rhetorical text-structure types and media forms have on comprehension. This study aims to examine the interaction between rhetorical text-structure and different forms of media on comprehension and attitude change. In this study we present two media forms, a documentary and a podcast describing the social topic: “Structural Inequality in the Global Economy”. Each media form has one of two identical text structures, either narrative or problem-solution. Undergraduate students will be randomly placed in one of four experimental conditions. Comprehension will be measured by a Sentence Verification Technique (SVT) and attitude change will be assessed using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). It is predicted that the narrative text-structure in both media forms will have greater influence on both comprehension and attitude change, and likewise visuals in the documentary will increase comprehension and attitude change.

ABSTRACT. Although graphics of data can support communication of complex scientific issues such as climate change, complex graphics can be difficult for non-experts to understand. Comprehension problems might in part be caused by visual complexity, such as visual clutter. Using a sort-task, we compared non-experts’ judgements of comprehension difficulty of ten real-world climate science graphics with the visual clutter of the graphics, measured by subband entropy (N=38). We found strong agreement between participants’ rankings, W=.473, p<.001; and a moderate to large positive correlation between visual clutter and perceived comprehension difficulty, Tc=.399, p<.001, especially for abstract relational graphs, Tc=.622, p<.001. Greater visual clutter was associated with greater perceived comprehension difficulty, suggesting that the degree of perceptual organization of a graphic influences cognition. The visual clutter of a graphic might therefore help predict difficulties when non-experts are tasked to quickly understand their content.

ABSTRACT. Emotions are known to play an important role in cognitive processes and social interactions. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is an engaging activity both at cognitive and social level and we may therefore assume that emotions play an important role in its outcome. The study of emotions in CSCL situations faces, though, methodological issues with respect to measuring and sharing emotions. The Dynamic Emotion Wheel (DEW) is a web-based application intended to overcome these issues and enhance emotional awareness. In the first cycle of development, attention was mainly given to the expression of emotions, whereas the present development focuses on the graphical representation of emotions. The idea is to test different configurations of the DEW – with respect, for instance, to individual vs. grouped graphical representation of emotions – and determine whether different ways of conveying awareness have different effects on group dynamics in CSCL settings.

ABSTRACT. Multiple studies have already shown the impact of concept mapping and self-questioning on learning and performance in educational settings, but they were never compared.. In this experimental research, these reading strategies will be studied among first year university students. By comparing a concept mapping strategy to a self-questioning strategy, we actually compare a visual to a verbal text processing strategy. During a six week period one group of students will learn how to use the concept mapping strategy whereas a second group will learn how to use the self-questioning strategy. Two control groups will be established as well: (1) the classic summarizing strategy; and (2) no intervention at all. Impact of the interventions will be measured during the first and last session and after one year.

ABSTRACT. In two experiments, we investigated whether the effectiveness of Eye Movement Modeling Examples (EMMEs) is influenced by characteristics of the learner and/or the model. In Experiment 1 (N=75), two groups received videos of an expert’s eye movements on multimedia learning material demonstrating multimedia processing strategies. Before, they either were informed that the model was a successful learner or that the model was another participant of the experiment. A control group learnt without EMMEs. After learning all participants completed a posttest. Results indicated an interaction between learner and model characteristics: Only learners with lower prior knowledge profited from EMMEs, but only when no information regarding the model’s competencies was given. These results contradict prior findings indicating that especially students with higher prior knowledge profit more from EMMEs. In Experiment 2 we currently investigate the influence of prior knowledge and other learner characteristics on the effectiveness of EMMEs in more detail.

ABSTRACT. Previous work conducted in our laboratory (Jacobson, Schwartz & Lippmann, 2013) indicated that color is not an arbitrary characteristic of graphics, but interacts with both the text it accompanies as well as the content in the graphic it depicts.  Our previous investigation yielded significant and marginally significant results in line with, and contradictory, to existing literature. Therfore, we conducted a follow-up investigation.  In three experiments, we aimed to address how the presence of a statistical graph influenced the construction of a learners’ concept about a company.  Experiment 1 revealed that the presence of an achromatic graph nullified the well documented framing effect.  Experiment 2 revealed that the color green used to make the success portion of the graph salient resulted in stronger arguments against the company.  Finally, Experiment 3 revealed that red used to make sailient failure resulted in learners’ describing more negative implications of the company’s actions. 

ABSTRACT. We investigated the generative aspect and long-term memory effects of learner-generated drawing. To this end, we compared six experimental conditions in a 3x2 between-subjects design (drawing vs. animated author-generated drawing vs. mental imagery x immediate vs. delayed testing). Participants (N=204) read a text about human swimming behavior and then took three learning outcome tests. The animated group scored higher on the recognition test than the drawing group but the mental imagery group did not differ from the other groups. The drawing and the animated groups scored higher on the visual-spatial representations test than the mental imagery group. Initial test scores were higher for the recognition and the visual-spatial representations tests than the delayed test scores. No differences were found for the transfer test. More perceived difficulty of the learning material was reported by the drawing group, indicating these participants could not use enough cognitive resources to engage in meaningful learning.

ABSTRACT. Two experiments investigated the effects of title-concreteness (more concrete vs. more abstract) on ease-of-comprehension (EOC) and comprehension test performance in American and German students. The studies were rooted in the Dual Coding Theoretical Model of Reading (DCTR) which proposes that concrete language fosters text comprehension by inviting referential processing during reading. In accordance to DCTR, we predicted that more concrete titles would cue referential processing and foster EOC and comprehension test performance in both participant samples. The results provided partial support: Students in both samples expected texts with more concrete titles to be easier to comprehend, but only German students experienced the expected increase in EOC from before to after reading. There were no differences in comprehension test performance in either sample.

ABSTRACT. Critiquing is an essential meta-representational competency. We designed a unique, long-term environment that triggered novel kinds of critique criteria, partially different from those reported, enabling a deeper understanding of the critique aspect of MRC. Over a year, fourth graders (N = 16) invented visual representations for 11 increasingly complex demonstrated human movement sequences. A decipherer decoded these “scripts” back into motoric performance (without seeing the original sequence). Subsequently, the inventors identified problems in their scripts (implicit critique), devised appropriate solutions for them, and modified their scripts accordingly. Implications to MRC development and educational experiences are discussed.

ABSTRACT. A paradigm from text comprehension research was adapted to multimedia learning to test whether text-picture integration occurs already during processing the materials. In Experiment 1, it was varied whether the information conveyed through text and pictures was consistent (control group) or whether the information conveyed through text and pictures differed on two out of 24 slides (experimental group). Analyses of gaze behavior during learning revealed that the control and experimental group did not differ regarding slides containing consistent information in both conditions. However, when inconsistent information was presented in the experimental group, learners spent more time on slides, had longer fixation times on text and picture, and had more revisits to text and picture than the control group. These data pattern was replicated in Experiment 2 with other learning materials. These data indicate that text-picture integration already occurs during processing multimedia materials.

ABSTRACT. Mathematical word problems take a prominent place in learners’ elementary and secondary mathematics curriculum worldwide. Optimally, they fulfil the role of genuine mathematical modeling tasks, wherein the learner has to develop and work through a mathematical model of the situation described in the problem text with a view to find a situationally meaningful solution. Many learners experience great difficulty with word problems, already from the beginning of their school career. Research has revealed that most difficulties occur in the first stages of the problem solving process, wherein the learner has to build an understanding of the situation described and to construct a mathematical model describing the essence of the relevant elements and relations embedded in the situation. A frequently used instructional technique to help learners through these initial phases of the solution process, is to complement the text with a graphic representation (a picture, a drawing, a diagram…) that is either given to or constructed by the learner. In this lecture, I will provide a critical overview of the research literature on the impact of these various representations on learners’ word problem solving processes and outcomes. Attention will be paid at the underlying theoretical models, research methods, empirical outcomes, and educational implications. The review will show that a proper understanding of the role of these various kinds of graphic representations for various kinds of word problems requires an integration of insights from the disciplines of cognitive psychology and mathematics education.

ABSTRACT. This study explore the impact of the position of the picture beside text on the screen (i.e., on the left vs. on the right). The results show no difference between the two conditions for learning performance. However, differences emerge concerning the eye movements’ strategies during the consultation. Thus, from a general point of view, learners in both conditions consult the document from left to right, but, from a specific point of view, learners don’t consult the two sources of information (i.e., picture or text) in the same order.

ABSTRACT. We investigated whether the emotional design effect in multimedia learning varies depending on learners’ achievement goals. Before reading, specific instructions were used to orient learners toward either mastery or performance goals. Learners were then asked to study a multimedia document with either a neutral or a positive design. Results showed that the positive design promoted positive emotions and motivation only when learners were oriented toward mastery goals.

ABSTRACT. Previous studies used sequential presentation designs to show that students who processed picture before text outperformed students who processed text before picture. The present study used a more naturalistic way of presenting text and picture to students (simultaneously) to test beneficial effects of early picture processing. Participants (N=85) learned about how polar lights develop and early picture or text processing was stimulated by means of implementation intentions. They were prompted to study ‘picture first’, ‘text first’, or none of both (control) using implementation intentions as instruction. Results showed that ‘picture first’ participants fixated the picture longer in the beginning of each page and had better learning outcomes than participants in the ‘text first’ condition (if the intentions were followed). Hence, early picture processing could be stimulated by implementation intentions which proved to be effective for learning, although text was presented concurrently.

ABSTRACT. The study examined the influence of reading goals and argument quality on the comprehension and evaluation of extended argumentative texts. Young adult readers read to comprehend or evaluate texts on two different controversial issues. Text versions varied with respect to the quality of the arguments included, but not in terms of argument content. The sample’s familiarity with the text topics was low and prior beliefs ranged from consistent to inconsistent with the texts’ main claims. The results indicated that an evaluation goal had a consistent positive effect on main claim and text recall when compared to comprehension goal. Argument quality, however, had no effect on text evaluation. The findings support a dissociation between the elaboration underlying comprehension and that involved in the critical evaluation of arguments in line with a dual-process account of thinking.