The use of illustrations when learning to read: A cognitive load theory approach Susannah Torcasio BA MEd A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March, 2009 School of Education University of New South Wales Abstract When students are learning to read, the materials supplied typically will include extensive illustrations. The implicit assumption is that the inclusion of such illustrations will assist students in learning to read. Cognitive load theory suggests that this way of formatting learning materials may not be maximally effective as the inclusion of illustrations with written text constitutes redundant information that may interfere with learning. If working memory resources are devoted to the illustrations rather than the text, as is likely with young children, those resources will be unavailable to decipher the text. The elimination of redundant illustrations may thus enhance learning to read. Three experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of including illustrations in beginning reading materials. Experiment 1 compared reading materials consisting solely of simple prose passages with materials consisting of the same passages plus informative illustrations depicting the content of each passage. Reading proficiency improved more under the no illustrations condition. Experiment 2 compared the informative illustrations with uninformative illustrations. Reading proficiency improved more using uninformative illustrations. Experiment 3 compared uninformative illustrations with no illustrations and found no significant differences between these conditions. These results were interpreted within a cognitive load theory iv framework. It was concluded that informative illustrations are redundant and so impose an extraneous working memory load that interferes with learning to read. v Table of Contents Declaration ........................................................................................................................ii Abstract...........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements........................................................................................................viii List of Tables ....................................................................................................................x List of Figures ..................................................................................................................xi Chapter 1 .........................................................................................................................1 Introduction....................................................................................................................1 Chapter 2 .........................................................................................................................4 Reading ..........................................................................................................................4 2.1 Reading throughout History..............................................................................4 2.2 Reading: A skill that must be learned ...............................................................7 2.3 Early Reading: The Decoding Process..............................................................9 Chapter 3 .......................................................................................................................12 Cognitive Load Theory ................................................................................................12 3.1 Human Cognitive Architecture .......................................................................13 3.2 Working Memory............................................................................................14 3.3 Long -Term Memory ......................................................................................15 3.4 Schemas ..........................................................................................................17 3.5 Element Interactivity.......................................................................................20 3.6 Categories of Cognitive Load .........................................................................21 Chapter 4 .......................................................................................................................25 Cognitive Load Effects ................................................................................................25 4.1 The Goal-Free Effect.......................................................................................25 4.2 The Worked Example Effect...........................................................................28 4.3 The Split-Attention Effect...............................................................................32 Chapter 5 .......................................................................................................................35 vi The Redundancy Effect................................................................................................35 5.1 The Expertise-Reversal Effect........................................................................40 Chapter 6 .......................................................................................................................42 Related Research Involving Pictures and Reading ......................................................42 6.1 Objectives of this research ..............................................................................47 Chapter 7 .......................................................................................................................50 Experiment 1 ................................................................................................................50 Chapter 8 .......................................................................................................................69 Experiment 2 ................................................................................................................69 Chapter 9 .......................................................................................................................86 Experiment 3 ................................................................................................................86 Chapter 10 ...................................................................................................................101 General Discussion ....................................................................................................101 10.1 Theoretical Overview ...................................................................................101 10.2 Analysis of experiments ...............................................................................102 10.3 Limitations of the study................................................................................105 10.4 Anecdotal evidence ......................................................................................107 10.5 Future research .............................................................................................112 10. 6 Conclusions and Recommendations.............................................................114 References....................................................................................................................117 Appendix A ..................................................................................................................129 Book List....................................................................................................................129 Appendix B ..................................................................................................................131 Books with illustrations .............................................................................................131 Appendix C ..................................................................................................................171 Books without illustrations ........................................................................................171 Appendix D ..................................................................................................................212 Books with faces ........................................................................................................212 Appendix E ..................................................................................................................253 Sight words and sentences .........................................................................................253 Appendix F...................................................................................................................265 Journal Article............................................................................................................265 vii Acknowledgements This work would have not been possible without the guidance of my primary supervisor Professor John Sweller. His interest in my work and valuable insights provided direction and impetus. John always responded so promptly to emails and queries and made me feel like he was sitting at his desk awaiting my latest offering- which I know could not have been further from the truth. I am grateful for his knowledge, his patience and persistence especially during the period of writing the thesis when I was in another state (both literally and figuratively). I would also like to thank Dr. Mengistu Amberber