Poster #24 - Should Students Generate Drawings or Study Provided Illustrations?

• In Event: 75.043 - MTCC Poster Session 17
  In Poster Session: 75.043-5 - Epistemic and Generative Interventions Promoting Learning Outcomes

Abstract

In two experiments, college students learned from a scientific text about the human circulatory system by studying provided illustrations and/or generating their own drawings. In Experiment 1 (N=132), students studied a provided illustration (study), generated their own drawing (generate), studied a provided illustration and then generated their own drawing (study-generate), or generated a drawing and then studied a provided illustration (generate-study). In Experiment 2 (N=141), some students were provided with additional support to help them process the provided illustration or construct a quality drawing. Results suggest that studying provided illustrations can be at least as effective as generating drawings, and that stronger levels of support may be necessary for the benefits of drawing to exceed studying provided illustrations.

Authors

• Qian Zhang, University of Georgia

• Logan Fiorella, University of Georgia