Abstract
This study investigated the cognitive processes and reader characteristics of sixth graders who had good and poor performance when reading scientific text with diagrams. We first measured the reading ability and reading self-efficacy of sixth-grade participants, and then recorded their eye movements while they were reading an illustrated scientific text and scored their answers to content-related questions. Finally, the participants evaluated the difficulty of the article, the attractiveness of the content and diagram, and their learning performance. The participants were then classified into groups based on how many correct responses they gave to questions related to reading. The results showed that readers with good performance had better character recognition ability and reading self-efficacy, were more attracted to the diagrams, and had higher self-evaluated learning levels than the readers with poor performance did. Eye-movement data indicated that readers with good performance spent significantly more reading time on the whole article, the text section, and the diagram section than the readers with poor performance did. Interestingly, readers with good performance had significantly longer mean fixation duration on the diagrams than readers with poor performance did; further, readers with good performance made more saccades between the text and the diagrams. Additionally, sequential analysis of eye movements showed that readers with good performance preferred to observe the diagram rather than the text after reading the title, but this tendency was not present in readers with poor performance. In sum, using eye-tracking technology and several reading tests and questionnaires, we found that various cognitive aspects (reading strategy, diagram utilization) and affective aspects (reading self-efficacy, article likeness, diagram attraction, and self-evaluation of learning) affected sixth graders’ reading performance in this study.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ainsworth, S. (1999). The functions of multiple representations. Computers and Education, 33(2), 131–152. doi:10.1016/S0360-1315(99)00029-9.
Andrews, S., Miller, B., & Rayner, K. (2004). Eye movements and morphological segmentation of compound words: There is a mouse in mousetrap. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 16(1/2), 285–311. doi:10.1080/09541440340000123.
Bakeman, R., & Gottman, J. M. (1997). Observing interaction: An introduction to sequential analysis (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Baker, L., & Wigfield, A. (1999). Dimensions of children’s motivation for reading and their relations to reading activity and reading achievement. Reading Research Quarterly, 34(4), 452–477. doi:10.1598/RRQ.34.4.4.
Bandura, A., & Cervone, D. (1983). Self-evaluative and self-efficacy mechanisms governing the motivational effects of goal systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(5), 1017–1028. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.45.5.1017.
Cook, M. P. (2006). Visual representations in science education: The influence of prior knowledge and cognitive load theory on instructional design principles. Science Education, 90, 1073–1091. doi:10.1002/sce.20164.
Cook, M., Carter, G., & Wiebe, E. N. (2008a). The interpretation of cellular transport graphics by students with low and high prior knowledge. International Journal of Science Education, 30(2), 239–261. doi:10.1080/09500690601187168.
Cook, M., Wiebe, E. N., & Carter, G. (2008b). The influence of prior knowledge on viewing and interpreting graphics with macroscopic and molecular representations. Science Education, 92, 848–867. doi:10.1002/sce.20262.
Cromley, J. G., Snyder-Hogan, L. E., & Luciw-Dubas, U. A. (2010). Cognitive activities in complex science text and diagrams. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 35, 59–74. doi:10.1080/104132001753149883.
de Leeuw, L., Segers, E., & Verhoeven, L. (2016). Role of text and student characteristics in real-time reading processes across the primary grades. Journal of Research in Reading, 39(4), 389–408. doi:10.1111/1467-9817.12054.
Evans, J. B. T. (2007). Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 255–287. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093629.
Ferk, V., Vrtacnik, M., Blejec, A., & Gril, A. (2003). Students’ understanding of molecular structure representations. International Journal of Science Education, 25(10), 1227–1245. doi:10.1080/0950069022000038231.
Fienberg, S. E. (1970). An iterative procedure for estimation in contingency tables. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 41(3), 907–917. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177696968.
Grant, E. R., & Spivey, M. J. (2003). Eye movements and problem solving: Guiding attention guides thought. Psychological Science, 14(5), 462–466. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.02454.
Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. III, pp. 403–422). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hannus, M., & Hyönä, J. (1999). Utilization of illustrations during learning of science textbook passages among low- and high-ability children. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 24(2), 95–123. doi:10.1006/ceps.1998.0987.
Harber, J. N. (1983). The effects of illustrations on the reading performance of learning disabled and normal children. Learning Disability Quarterly, 6(1), 55–60. doi:10.2307/1510866.
Hegarty, M. (1992). Mental animation: Inferring motion from static displays of mechanical systems. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18(5), 1084–1102. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.18.5.1084.
Hegarty, M., & Just, M. A. (1993). Constructing mental models of machines from text and diagrams. Journal of Memory and Language, 32(6), 717–742. doi:10.1006/jmla.1993.1036.
Hoover, W., & Gough, P. (1990). The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2(2), 127–160. doi:10.1007/BF00401799.
Huang, H. S. (2001). Chinese character recognition test. Psychological Publishing Company (in Chinese).
Jian, Y.-C. (2016). Fourth graders’ cognitive processes and learning strategies for reading illustrated biology texts: Eye movement measurements. Reading Research Quarterly, 51(1), 93–109. doi:10.1002/rrq.125.
Jian, Y. C., & Wu, C. J. (2015). Using eye tracking to investigate semantic and spatial representations of scientific diagrams during text-diagram integration. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 24(1), 43–55. doi:10.1007/s10956-014-9519-3.
Jian, Y. C., Wu, C. J., & Su, J. H. (2014). Learners’ eye movements during construction of mechanical kinematic representations from static diagrams. Learning and Instruction, 32, 51–62. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.01.005.
Johnson, C. I., & Mayer, R. E. (2012). An eye movement analysis of the spatial contiguity effect in multimedia learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 18(2), 178–191. doi:10.1037/a0026923.
Katzir, T., Lesaux, N., & Kim, Y. (2009). The role of reading self-concept and home literacy practices in fourth grade reading comprehension. Reading and Writing, 22(3), 261–276. doi:10.1007/s11145-007-9112-8.
Kirby, J. R., Ball, A., Geier, B. K., Parrila, R., & Wade-Woolley, L. (2011). The development of reading interest and its relation to reading ability. Research in Reading, 34(3), 263–280. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01439.x.
Ko, H. W. (1999). Reading comprehension-screening test (in Chinese). Psychological Testing, 46, 1–11.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of the visual design. London and New York: Routledge.
Liebfreund, M. D. (2015). Success with informational text comprehension: An examination of underlying factors. Reading Research Quarterly, 50(4), 387–392. doi:10.1002/rrq.109.
Lin, Y. C., Lee, C. S., Huang, N. T., Chang, Y. T., & Tsai, S. F. (2008). Living science and technology textbook. Kang Hsuan Company Press.
Mason, L., Pluchino, P., Tornatora, M. C., & Ariasi, N. (2013a). An eye-tracking study of learning from science text with concrete and abstract illustrations. Journal of Experimental Education, 81(4), 356–384. doi:10.1080/00220973.2012.727885.
Mason, L., Tornatora, M. C., & Pluchino, P. (2013b). Do fourth graders integrated text and picture in processing and learning from an illustrated science text? Evidence from eye-movement patterns. Computers and Education, 60(1), 95–109. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2012.07.011.
Mason, L., Tornatora, M. C., & Pluchino, P. (2015). Integrative processing of verbal and graphical information during re-reading predicts learning from illustrated text: An eye-movement study. Reading and Writing, 28(6), 851–872. doi:10.1007/s11145-015-9552-5.
Mayer, R. E. (2005). The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
McTigue, E. M. (2009). Does multimedia learning theory extend to middle-school students? Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(2), 143–153. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.12.003.
McTigue, E. M., & Flowers, A. C. (2011). Science visual literacy: Learners’ perceptions and knowledge of diagrams. The Reading Teacher, 64(8), 578–589. doi:10.1598/RT.64.8.3.
Miller, B. W. (2015). Using reading times and eye-movements to measure cognitive engagement. Educational Psychologist, 50(1), 31–42. doi:10.1080/00461520.2015.1004068.
Moore, P. J., & Scevak, J. J. (1997). Learning from texts and visual aids: A developmental perspective. Journal of Research in Reading, 20(3), 205–223. doi:10.1111/1467-9817.00033.
Norman, R. R. (2012). Reading the graphics: What is the relationship between graphical reading processes and student comprehension? Reading and Writing, 25(3), 739–774. doi:10.1007/s11145-011-9298-7.
Oakhill, J., & Cain, K. (2007). Issues of causality in children’s reading comprehension. In D. McNamara (Ed.), Reading comprehension strategies: Theories, interventions, and technologies (pp. 47–72). New York, NY: Erlbaum.
Paivio, A. (1990). Mental representations: A dual coding approach (pp. 53–83). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Rayner, K. (1998). Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), 372–422. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.124.3.372.
Reid, D. J., & Beveridge, M. (1986). Effects of text illustration on children’s learning of a school science topic. The British Journal of Educational Psychology, 56(3), 294–303. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8279.1986.tb03042.x.
Rusted, J., & Coltheart, M. (1979). Facilitation of children’s prose recall by the presence of pictures. Memory and Cognition, 7(5), 354–359. doi:10.3758/BF03196939.
Schnotz, W., & Bannert, M. (2003). Construction and interference in learning from multiple representation. Learning and Instruction, 13(2), 141–156. doi:10.1016/S0959-4752(02)00017-8.
Schroeder, S. (2011). What readers have and do Effects of students’ verbal ability and reading time components on comprehension with and without text availability. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(4), 877–896. doi:10.1037/a0023731.
Schunk, D. H. (1981). Modeling and attributional effects of children’s achievement: A self-efficacy analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 73(1), 93–105. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.73.1.93.
Segers, E., Verhoeven, L., & Hulstijn-Hendrikse, N. (2008). Cognitive processes in children's multimedia text learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 22, 375–387.
Slough, S., & McTigue, E. (2010). Introduction to the integration of verbal and visual information in science texts. Reading Psychology, 31(3), 206–212. doi:10.1080/02702710903241397.
Small, M. Y., Lovett, S. B., & Scher, M. S. (1993). Pictures facilitate children’s recall of unillustrated expository prose. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(3), 520–528. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.85.3.520.
Sung, Y. T., Wu, M. D., Chen, C. K., & Chang, K. E. (2015). Examining the online reading behavior and performance of fifth-graders: Evidence from eye-movement data. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1–15. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00665.
Taboada, A., Tonks, S. M., Wigfield, A., & Guthrie, J. T. (2009). Effects of motivational and cognitive variables on reading comprehension. Reading and Writing, 22(1), 85–106. doi:10.1007/s11145-008-9133-y.
Unrau, N. J., & Quirk, M. (2014). Reading motivation and reading engagement clarifying commingled conceptions. Reading Psychology, 35(3), 260–284. doi:10.1080/02702711.2012.684426.
van den Haak, M. J., De Jong, M. D. T., & Schellens, P. J. (2003). Retrospective vs. concurrent think-aloud protocols: Testing the usability of an online library catalogue. Behavior and Information Technology, 22(5), 339–351. doi:10.1080/0044929031000.
Van der Schoot, M., Reijntjes, A., & Van Lieshout, E. C. M. D. (2012). How do children deal with inconsistencies in text? An eye fixation and self-paced reading study in good and poor reading comprehenders. Reading and Writing, 25(7), 1665–1690. doi:10.1007/s11145-011-9337-4.
Wigfield, A., Guthrie, J. T., Perencevich, K. C., Taboada, A., Klauda, S. L., McRae, A., et al. (2008). Role of reading engagement in mediating effects of reading comprehension instruction on reading outcomes. Psychology in the Schools, 45(5), 432–445. doi:10.1002/pits.20307.
Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the Grants MOST103-2511-S-003-065-MY3 and MOST105-2628-H-003-002-MY3 from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jian, YC. Eye-movement patterns and reader characteristics of students with good and poor performance when reading scientific text with diagrams. Read Writ 30, 1447–1472 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9732-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9732-6