Faculty Publications

The Compensatory Effect Of Graphic Organizers On Descriptive Text

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Educational Research

Volume

75

Issue

1

First Page

44

Last Page

48

Abstract

The study investigated the use of graphic organizers to compensate for text that was less than optimal in its organization. Tenth graders (N = 114) read two versions of an expository passage that differed only in structure (comparison versus description). Both experimental groups studied a graphic organizer that had been constructed to reflect the comparison text structure. On immediate and delayed recall measures, the experimental groups recalled significantly more than the control groups only under the descriptive text condition. Results support assimilation encoding theory and suggest that organizers aid recall when readers must reorganize information but do not help when reorganization is unnecessary. All students, regardless of reading level, benefited from the use of graphic organizers. © 1981 Taylor & Francis.

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Original Publication Date

1-1-1981

DOI of published version

10.1080/00220671.1981.10885354

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