The purpose of this study is to: (1) examine the relative effectiveness with which different types of visual test formats facilitated information retrieval on tests measuring different educational objectives; (2) measure the effect that prior knowledge had on information retrieval; and (3) to determine whether an interaction existed between prior knowledge and testing format. One hundred and fifty three college level students participated in this study. Student received a 36-item physiology pretest, were identified as possessing high or low prior knowledge and then were randomly assigned to one of four treatments. After interacting with their respective assessment formats they received three 20-item multiple-choice tests designed to measure different educational objectives (facts, concepts, procedures). The visualized instructional module consisting of 2000 words employed in this study was designed by Dwyer & Lamberski (1977) and focused on the physiology of the human heart, its parts, their locations and the procedures occurring during the systolic and diastolic phases. The criterion measures are: (1) Identification Test; (2) Terminology Test; and (3) Comprehension Test. The treatments are: (1) Verbal Test Format (Control); (2) Simple Visual Test Format; (3) Intermediate Visual Test Format; and (4) Detailed Visual Test Format. In summary, the results of this study found that: (1) insignificant differences in achievement occurred among the different retrieval formats on all criterion tests; (2) as expected, significant differences in achievement were found to exist between high and low prior knowledge students on all criterion measures; and (3) an insignificant interaction was found to exist between level of prior knowledge and type of test format.