An Eye-Tracking Study of Learning From Science Text With Concrete and Abstract Illustrations |
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| Authors: | Lucia Mason Patrik Pluchino Maria Caterina Tornatora Nicola Ariasi |
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| Institution: | University of Padova , Italy |
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| Abstract: | This study investigated the online process of reading and the offline learning from an illustrated science text. The authors examined the effects of using a concrete or abstract picture to illustrate a text and adopted eye-tracking methodology to trace text and picture processing. They randomly assigned 59 eleventh-grade students to 3 reading conditions: (a) text only; (b) text with a concrete illustration; and (c) text with an abstract illustration in a pretest, immediate, and delayed posttest design. Results showed that the text illustrated by either the concrete or the abstract picture led to better learning than did the text alone. Eye-fixation data revealed that the abstract illustration promoted more efficient processing of the text. Analyses of the gaze shifts between the 2 types of external representation indicated that the readers of the text with the abstract illustration made a greater effort to integrate verbal and pictorial information. Furthermore, relations between online and offline measures emerged. |
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| Keywords: | eye movements instructional pictures learning from text text comprehension text processing |
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