Chapter 1 Introduction,The Field Study

This study was an investigation of the effectiveness of eight types of visual illustrations used to complement oral instruction. An attempt was made to evaluate the instructional value of black and white and colored visual Illustrations. Two hundred sixty-four eleventh-grade students were randomly assigned by class to one of nine treatment groups. Student learning was evaluated by means of five criterion tests designed to measure different educational objectives. Comparisons among the means of the nine treatment groups yielded significant differences. It was found that the realism continuum for still visuals is not a reliable predictor of learning efficiency; however, visual illustrations were found to significantly increase student learning on three criterion tests. Color in visual illustrations did not appear to be an important variable in increasing student learning in is study.