PICTURES FACILITATE CHILDRENS RECALL OF UNILLUSTRATED EXPOSITORY PROSE

Four experiments investigated the effect of pictures on the recall of expository prose by 1st graders and 3rd graders. Experiment 1 investig ated whether pictures would facilitate recall of information presented both in the prose and in the picture (illustrated information) as wel l as information presented only in the prose (unillustrated informatio n). Results showed that pictures facilitated children's recall of both illustrated and unillustrated information. Experiment 2 replicated th e effect for 1 st graders with 2 types of unillustrated information: b ehavioral and physical attributes of unusual animals. Experiment 3 aga in demonstrated that pictures facilitated recall of unillustrated info rmation. This effect was not due to heightened or selective attention. Experiment 4 examined whether the effect was restricted to unfamiliar topics. However, the facilitatory effect of pictures for unillustrate d information occurred for passages about familiar and unfamiliar anim als.