Testing the Effect of Pictures on the Comprehension of Second Graders

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of pictures, used to accompany basal reader stories, on the comprehension of below average, average and above average second grade readers. This study was unique in that simple line drawings were designated picture types and the Bormuth standard cloze procedure was used to measure comprehension. The subjects, one hundred and thirty second-graders from a rural primary school, were divided into two main groups: (1) story with no pictures and (2) story with pictures. Each group was composed of an equal number of below average, average and above average readers. The Laidlaw Placement Test for Primary Grades, a modified cloze test, was administered to all subjects to indicate placement in one of the three reading achievement levels. Final Cloze Test Stories, half with pictures and half without, were devised by the researcher and administered to each group of subjects. Stories were taken from the Laidlaw Reading Program, a basal reader program, and pictures were simple line duplicates of the original pictures accompanying the stories. A series of t tests and an analysis of variance were used to analyze the resulting comprehension scores at the .05 level of significance. The results indicated that for all second grade subjects, the picture groups performed significantly better than the no-picture groups. Additionally, all three achievement levels of picture groups received higher comprehension scores than the three comparative no-picture groups. However, only the below average picture group scored significantly higher than the below average no-picture group. Recommendations for classroom use of pictures and the cloze procedure at the primary school level, as well as recommendations for future research, were given.