Incidental Learning from Visual Displays among Fourth Grade Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out whether fourth grade students can recall information from untaught visual displays. One hundred and forty three students in six different classrooms were given a pretest on the names of the three branches of government and the main task of each. The three week treatment was comprised of a poster with pictures and print displayed prominently on the walls. At the end of the treatment, the pretest was re-administered as a posttest. A t-test indicated that the students exhibited a significant growth in the amount of information they know. They recalled information that they had been exposed to only in an incidental manner.