A Systematic Characterization of Cognitive Techniques for Learning from Textual and Pictorial Representations

Abstract

Pictorial representations can play a pivotal role in both printed and digital learning material. Although there has been extensive research on cognitive techniques and strategies for learning from text, the same cannot be said for static and dynamic pictorial representations. In this paper we propose a systematic characterization of cognitive learning techniques that is founded on both theoretical and empirical research. The characterization relates the learning techniques to classes of cognitive processes as well as to textual and pictorial representations. We show how successful strategies for learning from both plain text and illustrated text are covered by the characterization. We also exemplify how the construction of new strategies for pictorial representations can be informed by the characterization.Early research on learning strategies was carried out at a time when written text was the dominant form of information representation. Unsurprisingly, it focused on textual representation with the main objective being to identify how successful and less successful learners differed in their strategic behavior during learning. Marton and Säljö (1984), for example, empirically identified two different approaches to learning from texts. They distinguished between a surface level approach, such as the repeated reciting of text in order to remember it, and

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