Examines the structure of television pictures as based on the theory of field forces and suggests a series of hypotheses, experimental designs, and statistical treatments to be used in empirical investigations. Various theoretical concepts of composition (field forces) are discussed. (Author/JEG)

To determine if the location or type of a picture affects reading comprehension, college students read a passage and then answered multiple-choice questions that assessed different types of incidental learning. Subjects who viewed a picture after reading the passage scored higher than those who viewed before reading. (Author/JEG)

Reviews research examining the effects of pictorial illustrations on learning from textbooks; notes differences in purpose, approach, and methodology; identifies some shortcomings; and offers suggestions for future research. Forty references are listed. (FM)

Describes a study using ocular photography to examine factors which affect the visual weights of significant elements in a picture. Results indicating that the upper half of the visual fields has greatest weight are discussed, as are results showing insufficient support for side preferences. Included are 27 references. (Author/BK)

Three groups of Nigerian high school and college students were tested for response to four pictorial depth cues. Students had more difficulty with cues concerning the relative size of objects and the foreshortening of straight lines than with cues involving overlap of lines and distortion of the angles between lines. (Author/JEG)

It is suggested that instructional research in visual literacy focus on the study of the symbolic codes of pictorial media. (Author/STS)

Explores the influence of captions on acquisition of pictorial information and two types of verbal information by hearing-impaired viewers. Findings indicated that the pictorial aspect of the material neither hindered nor enhanced learning; however, the language level of captions can affect performance of certain tasks. Twenty references are…

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.…

Defines six types of illustrations and reports on a study of student preference for those picture styles. The subjects (380 students in grades K, 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, and 11) generally preferred photographs, with realistic drawings ranked second. But there were significant differences between sexes and age groups. (Author/JEG)

Examines the differences in visual and pictorial conventions between people in less technologically developed countries and those in the industrialized European sphere. The implications of these differences are assessed in light of cultural factors rooted in both geographic location and level of technological development. (MER)

Studied the number of eye fixations as a reliable external indicator of internal cognitive processes when undergraduate subjects are unaware that their eye movements are being monitored electronically. A relationship between posttest scores and the number of eye fixations was found. Twenty references are listed. (FM)

Two design strategies were tested on 69 elementary school children to investigate (1) the effect of using three types of pictorial supports to focus student attention on the important features of a concept or rule, and (2) the importance of specific pretraining instruction on using the pictorial to notice and label relevant rules and concepts.…

Experimenters analyzed a prose passage into 350 idea units, then interspersed throughout the text pictures depicting main ideas, or both main ideas and nonessential details. For fourth- and sixth-grade subjects, pictures did facilitate both immediate and delayed recall, but only of main ideas. (Author/JEG)

In two experiments, preschool children had better recall when the subjects and objects of sentences read aloud were also depicted pictorially. Learning was not enhanced by illustrating only the sentence subject or object. Sixteen references are listed. (Author/JJD)

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…