Revised visuals reduce cognitive processing of lesson text for low prior knowledge students but increase it for middle prior knowledge students¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r? · q3
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Total fixation duration on the text showed a condition by prior knowledge interaction, F(2, 51) = 23.63, p < .001, with low prior knowledge students processing the text more in the original condition and middle prior knowledge students processing it more in the revised condition. → Clinton 2017

Evidence¶

Clinton 2017¶

Clinton, V., Cooper, J.L., Michaelis, J., Alibali, M.W., & Nathan, M.J. (2017). How Revisions to Mathematical Visuals Affect Cognition: Evidence from Eye Tracking. In Eye-tracking technology applications in educational research (pp. 195-218). IGI Global. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED574984 doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-1005-5.ch010

q3 · i? · causal · r?

Eye-tracking experiment measuring total fixation duration (log-transformed) on text regions. Low prior knowledge students had "greater total fixation duration on the text in the original conditions than the revised condition"; middle prior knowledge students showed the reverse, F(1, 15) = 9.82, p = .002. Both values are as the chapter prints them (checked against the ERIC full text, 2026-10-15), but they are inconsistent: F(1, 15) = 9.82 corresponds to p ≈ .007, not .002, so one of the two is likely a misprint.

"There was an interaction between condition and prior knowledge group for total fixation duration on the text, F(2, 51) = 23.63, p < .001. Participants in the low prior knowledge group had greater total fixation duration on the text in the original conditions than the revised condition, F(1, 21) = 74.88, p < .001."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Prior Knowledge — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it

Related Claims¶

• Instructional guidance that helps novices can become redundant or counterproductive as expertise grows. — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• In one eye-tracking experiment, revising math-relevant visuals changes fixation length on them differently by prior knowledge group, with shorter fixations under the revised visuals for low prior knowledge students — related
• Revised visuals reduce cognitive load while reading lesson text for low prior knowledge students but increase it for middle prior knowledge students — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Revisions to visuals had no effect on post-lesson test scores, though prior knowledge predicted performance — related
• Revised visuals reduce cognitive processing of math-relevant visuals for low prior knowledge students but increase it for middle prior knowledge students — related