The role of illustrations in children’s inferential comprehension
Open accessAbstract
Illustrations are a salient source of information in children's books, yet their effect on children's reading comprehension has been studied only through literal factual recall. The purpose of the current study was to determine the effect of illustrations on bridging inferences, an important aspect of meaning making in comprehension models. Identical short stories were presented under different illustration conditions with pictures that represented different parts of the story. Participants were 73 7- to 11-year-olds. Illustrations both facilitated and interfered with inferencing depending on the type of information depicted; however, this effect was reduced as grade increased. Additional findings were that the overall ability to make inferences increased with age and working memory was a significant predictor of this skill. Results are discussed in relation to cognitive and developmental models of comprehension.
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Improvement of the efficiency of working memory with age increases the ability to think about abstract and hypothetical things, situations and norms and values.
“Improvement of the efficiency of working memory with age further increases the ability to think about abstract and hypothetical things, situations and norms and values [34, 41].”
From Medical decision-making in children and adolescents: developmental and neuroscientific aspects (2017) · cites this paper as [41]
The Developmental Differences section (page unavailable) says inhibition of irrelevant information becomes more efficient with age, and the Individual Differences section (page unavailable) finds that working memory predicts children's ability to make bridging inferences while reading. The paper does not establish that age-related gains in working-memory efficiency increase the ability to think about abstract or hypothetical matters, norms, or values. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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References 62 · Cited by 113
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- Authors
- Pike, M. M., Barnes, M. A., & Barron, R. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Guelph (CA)
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (US)
- Corresponding author
- Barnes, Marcia A.
- ORCID
- Barnes, Marcia A.
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-03
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 243-255
- ISSN
- 0022-0965 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1984977992
- Cited by
- 113
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 7.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- The Atrium (University of Guelph) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Keywords
- illustration, bridging inferences, inferential comprehension, children's reading comprehension, picture-text relations, working memory, age differences, grade level, children's literature, meaning-making
- MeSH terms
- Child, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Semantics, Visual Perception
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