Fewer than half of textbook images requiring comparison have an optimal spatial layout (direct placement) for structural alignment¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2022 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Of 103 images involving comparison, only 47 had direct placements only; 25 images contained one or more impeded placements. → Benjamin D. Jee 2022

Evidence¶

Benjamin D. Jee 2022¶

Benjamin D. Jee, Bryan J. Matlen, Monica Greenlaw, Nina Simms, Dedre Gentner. (2022). Spatial supports for comparison in educational science images. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-022-09599-0

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Analysis of spatial placement in the 103-image working data set (after excluding four images with extraordinarily high numbers of unit pairs and three broad array comparisons). The authors report "fewer than half had an optimal layout for comparison," and note 25 of 103 images had one or more impeded placements.

"if we consider the number of images with direct placements only (n = 47) relative to the total number of images involving comparison (n = 103), the results seem less favorable: fewer than half had an optimal layout for comparison."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Intervening visual units were moderately common and appeared more often in structure diagrams than process diagrams
• Over a third of images in middle school life science textbooks prompt students to compare visual units
• Comparison prompts are strongly concentrated in process diagrams (93%) and rare in photos (20%) — related
• Anatomy images were more likely than evolution images to have direct placement only — related
• Prior experiments report direct placement makes comparison consistently more accurate than impeded placement (d = .49 for shape triplets) — related