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Pictorial support for discourse comprehension

¹University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, School of Education, UK.

The British Journal of Educational Psychology

|June 1, 1994

Summary

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Visual aids like pictures can significantly improve young children's story comprehension by helping them build and update mental models. This supports recall of story details and character goals.

Area of Science:

Cognitive psychology
Developmental psychology
Educational psychology

Background:

Discourse comprehension relies on constructing and updating mental models.
Visual aids may support mental model construction in young children.
Understanding how to support early comprehension is crucial for educational practices.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if a picture depicting the initial situation aids young children's mental model construction.
To determine if visual aids enhance comprehension and recall of story elements, including character goals.
To explore the application of mental representation theory in early childhood education.

Main Methods:

Tested 4- to 6-year-old children's story comprehension.
Compared comprehension in children who viewed a picture of the initial story situation versus those who did not.

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Assessed the ability to model the final story event and recall the main character's goal.

Main Results:

Children who saw the picture demonstrated enhanced ability to model the final story event.
Picture exposure increased recall of the main character's goal, even when not directly depicted.
Findings support the role of functional mental models in linking events to goals.

Conclusions:

A picture of the initial situation facilitates functional mental model creation in young children.
This mental model supports comprehension by enabling better linking of events and goals.
Findings offer practical strategies for enhancing early childhood reading comprehension in classrooms.