Abstract:
ABSTRACT
THE INFLUENCE OF THEMATIC DISPLAYS ON THE
COMPREHENSION OF TEXT
by
William Battinich
Master of Arts in Psychology
Psychological Science Option
California State University, Chico
Spring 2009
The current investigation was designed to examine whether decorative
graphics can function as thematic displays and whether these displays can influence
learnersâ comprehension of textual material. Learners were presented with a text describing
the positive and negative aspects of romantic relationship with or without an
accompanying thematic display. Some researchers have suggested that decorative
graphics do not improve the recall of text nor increase the quality of learning outcomes.
However, our results suggest that decorative graphics can act as thematic displays and
also influence comprehension processes involved with the both the graphic and text.
Our results demonstrate that thematic displays can activate a learnerâ s schema of a
topic, thereby creating noticeable differences in the type of prior knowledge they bring
to mind while processing textual material. Furthermore, the type of prior knowledge
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that the learners incorporated into their essays about romantic relationships was distinctly
different depending on which thematic display was viewed.
