93 (Experiment 1 for simple task) and 120 (Experiment 2 for complex task) male high school students in Korea were randomly assigned to four types of groups. In both Experiments 1 and 2, there was no difference between groups in retention of visual materials. In Experiment 1, a simple task, the group that provided the entire image content in…

This experiment employed viewing time methods to investigate the effects of individual differences in visuospatial working memory (VWM) on the processing of older adults' bridging inferences in the understanding of visual narratives. The results showed that older adults could make bridging inferences in visual narrative processing, and that VWM…

The intense use of visual communication tools in today's knowledge and communication era does not mean that visual messages are correctly perceived and communication is appropriately structured. Similarly, it is just an assumption that people from younger generations, who are believed to have high levels of visual literacy, properly perceive the…

This study includes the educational utilization of Visual-culture digital-products, such as a documentary film, photographs, and historical texts. The research aim was for the students to develop visual literacy and enhance historical understanding through critical thinking by using products of visual-digital culture. Through the research…

New forms of visualizations are transforming how people interact with data. This dissertation explored how undergraduates learn with infographics. The following questions guided this research: (i) What do we know about the factors influencing the processing of data visualizations? (ii) How do task-level and learner-level characteristics impact the…

Introductory biochemistry courses are often challenging for students because they require the integration of chemistry, biology, physics, math, and physiology knowledge and frameworks to understand and apply a large body of knowledge. This can be complicated by students' persistent misconceptions of fundamental concepts and lack of fluency with…

Purpose: Previous research focused on graphical skills of the students, which remains a gap that exists, and there has not been comprehensive research on students' graphical literacy abilities. The present study aims to picture graphical literacy levels of the 8th grade students concerning the "reading," "interpreting,"…

The purpose of this study is to describe upper elementary students' understandings of four graphical devices that frequently occur in social studies texts: captioned images, maps, tables, and timelines. Using verbal protocol data collection procedures, we collected information on students' metacognitive processes when they were explicitly asked to…

Because of the Common Core State Standards there is a renewed emphasis on the importance of visual literacies in today's classrooms. Students need prior knowledge before approaching these types of texts. This article describes the results of one 6th-grade language arts class's engagement in pre-reading prior to viewing a theatrical…

The texts that adolescents encounter today are often multimodal, meaning they incorporate a variety of modes, including visual images, hypertext, and graphic design elements along with written text. Expanding the perspectives readers use to make sense of the multimodal texts is an important aspect of comprehension instruction. Moving beyond the…

Outlines a study in which television advertising supplied the text that college students were challenged to interpret. Explains that the language and images of this advertising posed a complex, cognitive challenge--even to these students at advanced levels of education. Concludes that information processing of television advertising presents a…

Visual knowledge is an enormously important part of our total knowledge. The psychological study of learning and knowledge has focused almost exclusively on verbal materials. Today, the advance of technology is making the use of visual communication increasingly feasible and popular. However, this enthusiasm involves the illusion that visual…

Ninety-one children participated in a study which evaluated a critical television-viewing skills curriculum. Students were given a comprehensive test of reality versus fantasy portrayals, special effects, and commercials. Methodology and results are presented and analyzed. (JL)

A series of tests of dimensional understanding showed that there was a hierarchical sequence, with three year olds able to handle less complex tasks than four year olds. (Editor)

Discussion of visual media and television literacy focuses on a course that was developed to improve the visual literacy of 12- and 13-year-old students in the United Kingdom. Testing for the experimental and control groups is explained, and implications for the development of television literacy are suggested. (23 references) (LRW)