How generative drawing affects the learning process: An eye-tracking analysis

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Johannes Hellenbrand
  • Richard E. Mayer
  • Maria Opfermann
  • Annett Schmeck
  • Detlev Leutner

Generative drawing is a learning strategy in which students draw illustrations while reading a text to depict the content of the lesson. In two experiments, students were asked to generate drawings as they read a scientific text or read the same text on influenza with author-provided illustrations (Experiment 1) or to generate drawings or write verbal summaries as they read (Experiment 2). An examination of students' eye movements during learning showed that students who engaged in generative drawing displayed more rereadings of words, higher proportion of fixations on the important words, higher rate of transitions between words and workspace, and higher proportion of transitions between important words and workspace than students given a text lesson with author-generated illustrations (Experiment 1) or students who were asked to write a summary (Experiment 2). These findings contribute new evidence to guide theories for explaining how generative drawing affects learning processes.

Original languageEnglish
JournalApplied Cognitive Psychology
Volume33
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)1147-1164
Number of pages18
ISSN0888-4080
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.11.2019
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • eye tracking, generative drawing, generative learning activities, learning processes, multimedia learning
  • Psychology

DOI

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