Results (
Thai) 1:
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One hundred and eleven 10th graders read an expository science text on the dipole character of water
molecules (ca. 1600 words). Reading instruction was varied according to a 2 2 experimental design
with factors ‘drawing pictures of text content on paper’ (yes, no) and ‘mentally imagining text content
while reading’ (yes, no). The results indicate that drawing pictures, mediated through increased cognitive
load, decreased text comprehension and, thus, learning (d = 0.37), whereas mental imagery, although
decreasing cognitive load, increased comprehension only when students did not have to draw pictures
simultaneously (d = 0.72). No evidence was found that the effects were moderated by domain-specific
prior knowledge, verbal ability, or spatial ability. The results are in line with cognitive theories of multimedia
learning, self-regulated learning, and mental imagery as well as conceptions of science learning
that focus on promoting mental model construction by actively visualizing the content to be learned.
Constructing mental images seems to reduce cognitive load and to increase comprehension and learning
outcome when the mental visualization processes are not disturbed by externally drawing pictures on
paper, whereas drawing pictures seems to increase cognitive load resulting in reduced comprehension
and learning outcome.
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