Good and Poor Readers' Use of Explicitly Cued Graphic Aids

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of explicitly cuing graphic aids in accompanying text. Specifically, the study attempted to determine if various cuing conditions would affect differently good and poor readers' comprehension of the text, attention to graphic aids, and recall of information displayed in graphic aids. Three expository passages each accompanied by two graphic aids were developed. One graphic aid displayed information that was redundant to the text; a second graphic aid displayed information that was non-redundant but related to the text. Good and poor seventh- and eighth-grade readers read these passages under five different conditions. Under one condition no graphic aids accompanied the text. Graphic aids accompanied the text in the remaining conditions that represented four levels of cuing: no cuing, general cuing, specific cuing, and combined cuing. Results of comprehension tests for each passage and a post-experiment graphics test were analyzed using analysis of variance procedures. Major conclusions were that explicit cuing increases attention to graphic aids and recall of information displayed in graphic aids that are redundant to the text. In addition, poor readers' comprehension of illustrated text is improved by explicit cuing of graphic aids.