Explores the problems of research on the effects of illustrations in text and other teaching materials. Several research frameworks are described, and a functional approach is suggested as a method of improvement. (BK)

Four studies showed that a substantial proportion of their subjects, aged four to seven years, responded as if elements "out of sight" in pictures were either nonexistent or imcomplete. Termed "literalism," this mode of responding was related to age but little influenced by training or another form of structured experience.…

Describes an investigation of the effects of mnemonic processing on interference phenomena. College students in two treatment groups and a control group read fictitious biographical passages. Although integrated imagery-mnemonic subjects recalled more factual information than separate mnemonic subjects, their recall was not statistically different…

This research study investigated children's attitudes towards "home" or "personal" computers. Subjects were 106 children from a one-day computer camp, who had had no previous experience with computers at home. The choosing and measuring of attitude dimensions is explained, and results indicate children's multidimensional attitude towards…

A one-way analysis of variance was used to assess the effects of imposed (picture) and induced (play) imagery on the aural language comprehension of 80 kindergarten children who were randomly assigned to two treatment and two control conditions. No significant differences in recall were found. (Author/JD)

Graduate students individually examined 34 photographs for an investigation of commonly perceived underlying visual dimensions. Similarity judgements between photographs were used for multidimensional scaling; subject interview data were used to describe meaningful visual concepts. Results indicate that pictures were grouped in clusters along…

Discusses two experiments designed to clarify the cognitive functions of mnemonics in fact learning. One presents subjects with a single attribute mnemonic, providing only the perceptual link, while the other presents subjects with a two-stage model serving the cognitive functions of providing a perceptual link followed by a meaningful link. (MBR)

Argues that a needs assessment model that is comprehensive and accounts for both cognitive and affective factors would be important to understanding the role of microcomputers in learning environments and describes a study that sought to design a computer literacy curriculum in response to real teachers' needs. (MBR)

Describes a study which compared film and written material with regard to effects produced by order in which conflicting information is presented. Results indicate film is more influential and better recalled than conflicting written information: conflicting paragraphs produce a primacy effect, whereas analogous film segments produce no order…

Effects of alternative modules designed to compensate for precourse memory and motivation differences were investigated for differences in content and task requirement. Interaction analyses on lesson times-to-criterion and criterion test scores indicated compensating treatments were partially effective in improving performance of low-memory,…

Examines the claim that television does not actively involve the viewer cognitively in ways usually associated with mature information processing. Study is described that suggests active and differential processing of television information by viewers and an increase in the level of sophistication in understanding the medium. Twenty-six references…

Students in experimental group received continuous feedback on learning performance and were allowed to make instructional decisions to determine whether learner control of instruction can be facilitated by directly affecting the student's perception of learning need. Results are discussed in reference to an information-processing approach to the…

This study compared the instructional effectiveness of both cued and noncued pictures and cued and noncued text; investigated whether a combination of pictorial and textual cues is the most effective strategy for low and average reading ability students; and compared average and low reading subjects using noncueing and cueing methods. (MBR)