This study, designed to determine whether contextual organizers presented before prose passages can improve learning and retention among undergraduates with no prior knowledge of the subject, compared the effects of two types of organizers--images and their verbal equivalents--as well as organizers versus a control group. Twenty-five references…

The first experiment determined that verbal interference (shadowing) was detrimental to the subjects' memory of words and high similarity pictures; the second, designed to minimize the possibility that students would sort through the pictures, indicated that verbal interference did not decrease memory of high similarity pictures. (Author/JEG)

Presents results of research into the relationship between two anxiety measures and performance on a visual concept acquisition task for university undergraduates. Analysis of variance indicates a significant interaction between cueing treatment and scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Further research using different populations and…

Argues that visual literacy should be studied through a cognitive approach, and describes principles of punctuating and structuring that can be used to develop a new standard of experimental validity. Triadic interaction theory and the role of strategies in research are discussed, as well as a new orientation to research. (BK)