It proposes that graphical representations can communicate information more effectively than text, because they visuospatially manifest the structural information underlying the text, and reduce readers’ cognitive effort while they are interpreting or capturing the unarticulated message (Robinson & Schraw, 1994; Vekiri, 2002).


Macalester College

Pre-concepts needed to understand study:
- Visual argument theory
- Fuzzy Trace Theory 
- Verbatim traces
- Gist traces

Pre-concepts (Designs of concept maps and their impacts on readers’ performance in memory and reasoning while reading)

Jeng-Yi Tzeng, (2010) Designs of concept maps and their impacts on readers’ performance in memory and reasoning while reading. National Tsing Hua University. United Kingdom Literacy Association. Journal of Research in Reading, ISSN 0141-0423 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9817.2009.01404.x Volume 33, Issue 2, 2010, pp 128–147


Designs of concept maps and their impacts on readers’ performance in memory and reasoning while reading


Visual argument theory

- One of the key arguments that the theory makes is that when people process knowledge representations, they create two memory traces that vary in the degrees of specificity, that is, the gist traces and verbatim traces. (Brainerd & Reyna, 1993; Lampinen, Leding, Reed & Odegard, 2006).
- The Fuzzy Trace Theory argues that memory and reasoning not only operate in dissociation with each other, but may also be obstructive to each other’s operations (Brainerd & Reyna, 1993; Reyna & Kiernan, 1994).


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