Different Cognitive Processing During Online Reading Primed by Note-Taking and Graphic Organizers

• In Event: Learning From Multimedia and Graphs

Abstract

Eye-tracking technology was used to examine how taking notes and filling in a graphic organizer affect cognitive processing during reading. College students read a computer-presented passage that compared the characteristics of eastern (top portion) and western (bottom portion) steamboats, either by reading it twice, typing notes into a textbox, or typing characteristics of the steamboats into a graphic organizer. Students in the note-taking group (and read-only group) tended to use a linear learning strategy in which their eyes followed the text in the order presented whereas students in the graphic organizer group tended to use a generative learning strategy in which their eyes searched for connections between corresponding information required to make comparisons across the top and bottom of the passage.

Authors

• Hector R. Ponce, University of Santiago of Chile

• Richard E. Mayer, University of California - Santa Barbara