Abstracts - Earli

traditions offer radically different interpretations. For example, explanations in empirical studieson learning with educational representations, depending on the theoretical stance, focus on; effectsof attention and motivation (e.g. justifying the use of vivid animations), individual differences inlearning style and experience (e.g. visualisers/ verbalisers), instructional design and multimediaprinciples (e.g. cognitive load explanations) and achieving fluency in a disciplinary discourse(stressing the importance of the affordances and constraints of each particular representation). Thepurpose of this symposium is to bring together researchers from different traditions (includingsemiotics, cognitive psychology, cognitive ergonomics and discourse analysis) and who applydifferent methodological paradigms (e.g. experimental studies, usability engineering, qualitativecase study research) to explore whether a synthesis between these approaches is possible or evendesirable. Each presenter will expose his or her theoretical approach, describe how it explains avariety of empirical results, report on remaining issues within the approach, and suggest newresearch that should be undertaken. The discussant will look for points of convergence anddivergence between the approaches in order to assess progress towards a genuinely integrativeapproach, which would be of value to researchers from different traditions and whose applicationcould guide educational practice.The power of aesthetics in graphics: priming prior knowledge and dictating what is learnedNeil Schwartz, California State University, Chico, USAHelmut Lieb, University of Koblenz, Landau, GermanyWilliam Battinich, California State University, Chico, USANatalie Kiunke, California State University, Chico, USAGraphic representations accompanying text have a reliable influence on the organization andcomprehension of the material students learn. The influence occurs with surprising regularityacross a wide variety of subject matter and materials—from the standard textbooks used in schoolsto the graphical interfaces used for navigation on the web. Much of the research on the influenceof graphics has been directed at explaining the higher order cognitive processes involved whenstudents use graphics to learn. However, we believe that other properties are at work—particularlyaesthetics—that dictate the degree to which graphics influence what students learn. In the presentpaper we report on the theory, methodology, and results of three investigations that systematicallydemonstrate the way aesthetic properties of graphics not only influence what students learn fromaccompanying text, but also prime the learners to retrieve idiosyncratic and affectively richschemas from prior knowledge. The results from the three experiments provide strong support forthe aesthetic property of graphics in arousing memories of learners during learning, and predictinghow this level of arousal dictates what they learn.Cognitive perspectives on learning with external representationsTina Seufert, Saarland University, GermanyRoland Brunken, Saarland University, GermanyFrom a cognitive point of view learning with external representations can be seen as theconstruction of mental representations of subject topics, which are represented by the externalrepresentation. Thus, the question arises how this knowledge construction process works in detail.Currently, there are two prominent models for learning with external representations, whichinitiated a large amount of empirical work: (1) the cognitive theory of multimedia learning(CTML) and (2) the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). The CTML focuses on how different externalrepresentational formats like texts and pictures which address different sensory modalities areprocessed on different levels and on describing the resulting knowledge structures. Hence, it gives– 481 –