Abstracts - Earli

Visualization and verbalization of text content: Effects of strategy instruction on science textcomprehensionClaudia Leopold, Duisburg-Essen University, GermanyDetlev Leutner, Duisburg-Essen University, GermanyTheories of multimedia learning emphasize the importance of integrating verbal and visualinformation for text comprehension (Mayer, 2005; Schnotz, 2005). However, verbal and visualinformation relate to different representational formats, which are not easily integrated. Ratherstudents need support to translate and actively form referential connections betweenrepresentations (Ainsworth, 1999). While these processes were mainly studied using text andpresented pictures, they should especially be activated by instructions to construct visualrepresentations while reading a text. Two experiments were conducted to examine whetherinstructions to visualize and/ or verbalize text content help students when reading a science text.Both experiments followed a 2x2 research design, with visualization strategy (yes vs. no) andverbalization strategy (yes vs. no) instruction as experimental factors. The visualization instructionaimed at fostering the construction of a visually based representation, the verbalization instruction– selecting main ideas (Exp. 1) and summarising text content (Exp. 2) – aimed at fostering forminga verbally based representation, and the integrated strategy instruction combines both strategiesand aimed at fostering integrated representations. A no-instruction group was included to provide abaseline for comparison. The main dependent variable was science text comprehension, measuredby a multiple-choice and a transfer test. 92 (Exp. 1) respectively 77 (Exp. 2) students (grade 10)participated in the study, randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups. After studying thescience text, students filled in the multiple-choice and the transfer comprehension test. The resultsshowed positive effects for visualization instructions, negative effects for verbalizationinstructions, and no interactions. In general, the results are in line with current multimedia learningtheories. However, they raise the question whether transformation or integration of representationsis the main cognitive process of multimedia learning for science text comprehension.Backward inferences and the role of goal structure in auditory and audiovisual presentations ofnarrative textsUnsoeld Ilka, Department of Psychology, GermanyNieding Gerhild, Department of Psychology, GermanyAlthough inferences are seen as a necessary part of text comprehension (Kintsch & van Dijk,1978) only a few studies on such inferences have concentrated on children. In this study, weinvestigated backward inferences kindergarten children draw on- and offline. To compare theirabilities with older age groups, 8-year-olds, 10-year-olds and adults were also tested. One hundredtwenty eight participants were presented a number of narrative texts in auditory and audiovisualform. After each story a probe word was presented which could be linked either to a globalinference, a local inference or which served as a distractor word. Participants had to decidewhether the probe word had occurred in the story or not. Since goals can help to maintain globalcoherence in a text (Suh & Trabasso, 1991), half of the texts included a goal structure. To measureinferences offline, we used free recall questions in a story containing superordinate andsubordinate goals. The questions could be answered either with a local or a global inference. In theonline measure, 6-year-old children primarily generated local inferences whereas there was nodifference between local and global cause answers in the offline measure. In contrast, for 8-yearolds,more local than global inferences were found in both online and offline measures. The samepattern was observed for the two older groups in the online measure, whereas they indicated moreglobal causes in the offline measure. Moreover, generation of global inferences could be fostered– 758 –