SPATIAL-SEMANTIC DISPLAY PROCESSING - THE ROLE OF SPATIAL STRUCTURE ON RECALL

The purpose of the present study was to test a model of spatial-semant ic display processing by comparing the aided and unaided recall of inf ormation presented in a node-link format (knowledge map) to the aided and unaided recall of information presented in a text format. Structur al icons of the knowledge map and text with the verbiage removed were used to aid retrieval in some conditions. Participants were randomly a ssigned to one of eight groups formed by the complete crossing of thre e factors: knowledge map versus text, structural icon at recall versus no structural icon at recall, and immediate versus delayed recall. Kn owledge map groups outperformed text groups on essay tests and they mo re accurately remembered where information was located within the mate rials. Both knowledge map and text icon-aided recall groups had signif icantly better performance than the no icon, unaided recall groups (pa rticularly on main ideas). (C) 1997 Academic Press.