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Abstracts Volume 28 no.2 2006
Charlotte van Hooijdonk and Emiel Krahmer
Tilburg University, The Netherlands
The influence of unimodal and multimodal instructions on learning and executing RSI exercises
ABSTRACT: In this paper, we describe an experiment studying a specific kind of procedural instructions, namely exercises for the prevention or Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), taking information modality (text vs. photo vs. film clip vs. text + photo vs. text + film clip) and difficulty degree of the exercises (easy vs. difficult) into account. In this experiment, participants had to learn RSI exercises and were asked to execute them. The results showed that for easy RSI exercises an instruction in a photo was more effective that an instruction in text or film clip. Moreover, the multimodal instructions were not more effective in explaining the RSI exercises than the unimodal instructions.
KEY WORDS: procedural instructions, multimodal instructions, visual instructions, modality principle, question-answer system, learning effects
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Luuk Lagerwerf, Louise Cornelis, Johannes de Geus and Phidias Jansen
Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Advance organizers in advisory reports: Less reading, more interest
ABSTRACT: According to research in educational psychology, advance organizers lead to better learning and recall of information. In this study we establish that advance organizers fulfill a different role in a business context: they facilitate selective reading, but do not lead to better comprehension. By varying the presence of two types of advance organizers in an advisory report (graphic and verbal), we established different effects for selective reading, as well as attitudes towards the report. Our respondents were experienced professional readers. Six manipulated versions of an advisory report were read by 160 respondents in a between-subjects design. Their reading time was limited to encourage selective reading. The results showed that reports containing graphic advance organizers were read more selectively in interaction with verbal advance organizers (Problem-Solution). Advance organizers did not improve comprehension, but did enhance interest in and appreciation of the report. Graphic and verbal advance organizers are useful to help readers read advisory reports more selectively, and may help advisors to increase interest and appreciation, but not comprehension, for their reports.
KEY WORDS: advance organizers, problemsolution structure, selective reading, professional readers, advisory reports, message-first principle
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Wim Blokzijl and Bas Andeweg
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Comparing the effects of textual and visual slides as support for oral presentations
ABSTRACT: Powerpoint slides with bullets used as presentation support are generally considered to be boring. Therefore, communication experts advise to apply visualisations instead of text. This advice, however, is not really backed by research. To study its value, an experiment was carried out, in which three conditions were compared: text slides, slides with visualisations and no slides at all. Two factors were measured: learning effects and audience appreciation. Powerpoint support proved to be effective, for the group without powerpoint scored significantly worse on the accompanying knowledge test than the groups that did see powerpoint slides. The group that saw text slides outperformed the group that saw visuals. However, after a week all significant differences between the two powerpoint conditions had disappeared. The differences between the two powerpoint conditions and the no powerpoint condition did remain. An appreciation test showed that audiences perceive slides with visualisations to be of better quality than the support with text slides. The overall conclusion is that presenters can choose between text slides and slides with visualisations, depending on what they want to achieve with their presentation. However, applying no slides at all appears to be a bad choice.
KEY WORDS: Powerpoint slides, visual slides, textual slides, oral presentations, learning effects
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Henk Pander Maat and Ilje van der Ploeg
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
The effectiveness of structure markers in texts and knowledge maps
ABSTRACT: It has been shown more than once that instructions presented as flow charts can be more effective than instructions in the form of traditional text. Recent studies also reveal that another schematic genre, the so-called knowledge map, may be a more effective way of presenting complex learning material than traditional texts are. The best results have been found for knowledge maps that have been designed in accordance with Gestalt principles: for instance, these maps use similarity in color or shape and variations in distances to group items.
Studies comparing maps with texts run the risk of comparing a well-designed map with a badly written text. Hence we did a study in which both knowledge maps and traditional texts are presented in a ‘plain’ version and in a version with a more explicit structure. The documents explained the process leading from a bill to a law in the Dutch parliamentary system. In the map, the structure marking was carried out by using different colors for different actors in the process (the cabinet , the parliament, the Queen), and specific shapes for nodes referring to specific steps in the process (e.g. amendments). For the text, the structure markers were headings referring to the main actors of the following paragraph. The subjects were asked to recall the main points of the documents, and were asked for their evaluations.
Although the knowledge maps were deemed more attractive, there was no difference between both maps and texts concerning reproduction. In contrast, there was a large effect for structure marking both on evaluation and reproduction perform- | |
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ance, for both presentation media. However, the locus of the structure marking effects is shown to be medium specific.
KEY WORDS: Gestalt principles, knowledge maps, structure marking, headings in text, visual and textual modalities
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Renske van Enschot, Hans Hoeken and Margot van Mulken
Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Rhetoric in advertising. Attitudes towards verbo-pictorial rhetorical figures.
ABSTRACT: A rhetorical figure (for instance the repetition of H's in ‘Heerlijk Helder Heineken’) communicates an advertisement message in an artfully deviant way. Rhetorical figures are frequently subdivided into schemes (superficial decorations, e.g., rhime, alliteration) and tropes (meaningful deviations, e.g., metaphors, puns). Up until now, the focus has been on verbal and visual schemes and tropes. But rhetorical figures (schemes and tropes) can also be found in the combination of text and image. In this article, an experiment and interviews are presented on the effect of verbo-pictorial schemes and tropes on the attitude towards an advertisement. Twelve real-life advertisements (4 per category: non-rhetorical figure, scheme, and trope) were presented to 92 participants. The results show that the attitudes towards advertisements with verbo-pictorial tropes (and advertisements without rhetorical figures) were lower than towards advertisements with verbo-pictorial schemes. This could be explained by the fact that the advertisements with verbo-pictorial tropes were more often not understood than the advertisements with verbo-pictorial schemes and that the attitudes were lower for the advertisements that were not understood than for the advertisements that were understood.
KEY WORDS: visual rhetoric, schemes, tropes, advertising effectiveness, relevance theory, qualitative interviewing
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Margot van Mulken, Geertje van Bergen and Leontien de Vrught
Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Verbal anchoring in print advertisements
ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to replicate a previous study on the impact of verbal anchoring on consumer response (Phillips 2000). When the verbal copy helps to interpret the meaning of the accompanying picture, this is called verbal anchoring. Phillips (2000) concludes that advertisements with partial verbal anchoring (when the verbal copy hints towards the correct interpretation) are more preferred than other types of verbal anchoring. The first replication study expands on Phillips' study with one extra type of verbal anchoring, while the second study examines whether there is a difference in appreciation between French and Dutch respondents.
In the first experiment, 80 participants were invited to judge four different types of verbal anchoring in four different advertisements. Contrary to expectation, results show that complete verbal anchoring is best preferred. In the second experiment, 40 French and 40 Dutch respondents participated. It appeared again that complete verbal anchoring was best preferred and that there were only small differences between the two nationalities.
KEY WORDS: rhetoric, verbal anchoring, advertising, consumer response.
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