ERIC Number: ED024540
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1968-Jun
Pages: 41
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Effects of a Content-Relevant Picture on the Comprehension of the Main Idea of a Paragraph. Report From the Reading Project.
Koenke, Karl
The importance of content-relevant pictures in the comprehension of the main idea of a paragraph was investigated. Various reading conditions were constructed which contained a paragraph, a picture, or both, each with three types of instructions. In addition, the effects of paragraph readability, student grade placement (grade 3 and 6), and sex were examined. An analysis of variance of the main idea responses to the pictures showed that in general there were no significant differences between boys and girls or between third and sixth graders. Responses to one picture were better than responses to the other two, but only for sixth-grade subjects. The analysis of variance of ratings of the responses to the paragraphs with/without pictures and directions did not affect the adequacy of main idea responses. Although both readability and grade effects were significant, post hoc analyses showed that reading basic paragraphs led to significantly better main idea responses only among the sixth graders and that the significantly higher boys' mean accounted for the difference. (Author/WB)
Publication Type: N/A
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC. Bureau of Research.
Authoring Institution: Wisconsin Univ., Madison. Research and Development Center for Cognitive Learning.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A