Although pictures and texts are widely used as written material in education,they are often arranged with high cognitive load regardless of their characteristics and readers’ cognitive development. Generally,the familiar and feasible picture-text layout could be processed effectively,but the underlying cognitive mechanism is still unclear. In terms of the Cognitive Load Theory,this study explored how picture-text layout( horizontal/vertical) and familiarity( high/low) interactively affect children’s and adults’ word recognition using the old-new recognition task.There were three major findings. First,there was a significant interaction between extraneous cognitive load( layout) and intrinsic cognitive load( familiarity) for word recognition. Both children and adults recognized the low-familiarity words more accurately at the horizontal layout,but the processing of high-familiarity words was not influenced by layout. Second,the effects of familiarity on word recognition were different for children and adults,respectively. High-familiarity words were recognized more accurately for children,while low-familiarity words were recognized more accurately for adults. Third,the vocabulary size was negatively related to processing speed for children,and the cognitive ability( i. e.,attention and working memory) and vocabulary size were positively related to recognition accuracy for adults. Taken together,horizontal layout could enhance information processing by decreasing the extraneous cognitive load of unfamiliar words,while the picture-text layout could not influence the processing of high-familiarity words. These results verify the Cognitive Load Theory and provide clear suggestions for textbooks’ picture-text arrangement and word recogniton for children.

图文信息广泛存在于书面材料中,但是图文材料相对呈现位置和熟悉性如何交互影响信息加工效率,及其认知机制尚不清楚。本研究基于认知负荷理论框架,采用学习-再认范式,结合学习者的认知能力(注意、工作记忆、识字量等),考察图文材料呈现位置(横排/竖排)和熟悉性(高/低)对32名儿童(7.89±0.30岁)和32名成人(22.67±3.48岁)词汇再认的影响。结果显示:(1)总体上,低熟悉性词汇在图文横排呈现时再认正确率较高,但高熟悉性词汇不受位置影响;(2)儿童对高熟悉性词汇的再认正确率较高,但成人对低熟悉性词汇的再认正确率较高;(3)儿童识字量越大,词汇再认速度越快;成人注意力、工作记忆广度、识字量成绩越高,再认正确率越高。结果表明,无论对儿童还是成人,外在负荷(呈现位置)和内在负荷(熟悉性)之间均存在交互作用,即外在负荷显著影响高内在负荷信息的加工,但对低内在负荷信息的加工影响较弱,验证了认知负荷理论。本研究成果为不同难度水平的教材排版设计和词汇识别学习提供了科学依据。

国家自然科学基金青年项目(31600887)