Assessing functional effectiveness of pictorial representations used in text

Conclusion

Recent literature concerning the use of illustrations in text has stressed the need for an assessment of the instructional function being served by the illustration. When an illustration is incorporated into textual matter, it should be serving a specific, pedagogically sound instructional function. Otherwise, the reader probably will not benefit from the illustration’s inclusion in the text; in fact, the reader might be distracted from the text by the illustration, with no cognitive gain being derived from this distraction. Therefore, to the traditional criteria for selection of illustrations used with text must be added the instructional function that is to be served.

To determine whether an illustration will serve an intended instructional function effectively, a close examination of both the illustration’s attributes and its relationship to the text must be made. Research has shown that illustrations are composed of a variety of attributes pertaining to physical, instructional, and relational qualities of the illustrations, and that these attributes affect the way in which illustrations can be used as instructional tools. Therefore, the attributes present in an illustration will account in part for its effectiveness in serving an instructional function.

The findings of this study suggest that illustrations possessing literal representation are more effective than illustrations possessing analogical representation when the instructional function to be served is identification of properties of phenomenal information, and that illustrations possessing analogical representation are more effective than illustrations possessing literal representation when the instructional function to be served is clarification of nonphenomenal information.

Thus, this study is one of many needed to provide a comprehensive analysis of illustrations functioning as instructional supplements to text. Until a thorough understanding of the relationship between attributes and functions of illustrations is achieved, textbooks will in all probability continue to include illustrations which do not fulfill their instructional potential.