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ERIC Number: EJ938368
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9266
EISSN: N/A
It's Not Easy Being Green: Student Recall of Plant and Animal Images
Schussler, Elisabeth E.; Olzak, Lynn A.
Journal of Biological Education, v42 n3 p112-119 2008
It is well documented that people are less interested in studying plants than animals. We tested whether university students would selectively recall more animal images than plant images even when equally-nameable plant and animal images were presented for equal lengths of time. Animal and plant images were pre-tested and 14 animal-plant pairs were selected, based on student ability to equally name the images. These images were randomly presented to two groups of university students: those currently enrolled in a psychology class and those currently enrolled in a botany class. Student recall of each image was recorded after a distracting task. The results confirmed that the animal images were recalled significantly more than the plant images. There was no apparent effect of attending a botany class on these results. However, gender effects were identified for recall of plant versus animal images in general (women recalled more plants than men) and for four specific plant images (carnation, rose, daisy, and venus fly trap). When teaching biology, teachers should present equal numbers of plant and animal examples and use the most memorable plant images possible to attempt to offset student selective attention to animals. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.)
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A