Comprehension of graphics can be considered as a process of schema-mediated structure mapping from external graphics on internal mental models. Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that graphics possess a perceptible surface structure as well as a semantic deep structure both of which affect mental model construction. The same content was presented to different groups of learners by graphics from different perspectives with different surface structures but the same deep structure. Deep structures were complementary: major features of the learning content in one experiment became minor features in the other experiment, and vice versa. Text was held constant. Participants were asked to read, understand, and memorize the learning material. Furthermore, they were either instructed to process the material from the perspective supported by the graphic or from an alternative perspective, or they received no further instruction. After learning, they were asked to recall the learning content from different perspectives by completing graphs of different formats as accurately as possible. Learners' recall was more accurate if the format of recall was the same as the learning format which indicates surface structure influences. However, participants also showed more accurate recall when they remembered the content from a perspective emphasizing the deep structure, regardless of the graphics format presented before. This included better recall of what they had not seen than of what they really had seen before. That is, deep structure effects overrode surface effects. Depending on context conditions, stimulation of additional cognitive processing by instruction had partially positive and partially negative effects.

This study used eye-tracking to capture the students' visual attention while taking the test of understanding graphs in kinematics (TUG-K). A total of N = 115 upper-secondary-level students from Germany and Switzerland took the 26-item multiple-choice instrument after learning about kinematics graphs in the regular classroom. Besides choosing the correct alternative among research-based distractors, the students were required to judge their response confidence for each question. The items were presented sequentially on a computer screen equipped with a remote eye tracker, resulting in a set of approx. 3000 paired responses (accuracy and confidence) and about 40 hours of eye movementdata (approx. 500.000 fixations). The analysis of students' visual attention related to the item stems (questions) and the item options reveal that high response confidence is correlated with shorter visit duration on both elements of the items. While the students' response accuracy and their response confidence are highly correlated on the score level, r(115) = 0.63, p < 0.001, the eye-tracking measures do not sufficiently discriminate between correct and incorrect responses. However, a more fine-grained analysis of visual attention based on different answer options reveals a significant discrimination between correct and incorrect answers in terms of an interaction effect: Incorrect responses are associated with longer visit durations on strong distractors and less time spent on correct options while correct responses show the opposite trend. Outcomes of this study provide new insights into the validation of concept inventories based on students' behavioural level.

We tested whether semantic relatedness between to-be-remembered items and item presentation format (pictorial vs. verbal) affects associative recall. Fifty-nine children (11-13 years old) and forty young adults (age 18-30) completed a learning and recall task for semantically related (e.g., padlock-key) and unrelated (e.g., lemon-piano) picture-picture, word-picture, and word-word pairs. The data revealed memory advantage for semantically related item pairs, and for pictures compared to words. A picture superiority effect was found exclusively for pure picture pairs. Despite pronounced differences in memory accuracy, the effect of semantic relatedness and the picture superiority effect were comparable in adults and children. Semantic relatedness and pictures seem to trigger deeper semantic processing of associated items. Our results suggest distinct contributions of semantic binding and memory strategies to associative memory, while the last seem to account particularly for age-related differences in associative recall. Statement of contributionWhat is already known on this subject?Recognition advantage for picture over word stimuli, known as the picture superiority effect. PSE is found for single and associated picture over word items. Conflicting data about developmental aspects of the PSE.What does this study add? PSE is modulated by pre-existing semantic relations between picture stimuli. Semantic relation seems to modulate the PSE to a lesser extent in children than in adults. The cognitive processes behind the PSE might change with age.

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