Comprehension of expository text: A line graph helps readers to build a situation model

The present study investigated the effects of a graph on undergraduates' co mprehension of an expository text. In Experiment 1, undergraduates who knew little about the domain of the text read 1 of 3 versions of a text concern ing digitization which contained either a line graph representing an exampl e of digitization (Graph Group), a verbal description of the example (Verba l Description Group), or no example (Control Group). The Graph Group perfor med better than the other 2 groups on a transfer test that required deep un derstanding, but did not have significantly better scores on retention of t he text. The results suggest that a graph would be more likely than verbal description to enable readers to build a situation model. Futhermore, in Ex periment 2, readers who received a text that had verbal description adding more information from the graph did not perform as well as Graph Group. The se findings suggest that the Graph Groups benefited from information in the graph when they built the situation model, whereas, because of the cogniti ve burden, the Verbal Description Group could not use the verbal descriptio n well enough to enable them to elaborate a representation.