R. Hall Knowledge Map Research

Description

Visual/spatial displays have been used for the delivery of technical and academic information for some time (e.g., Briscoe & LaMaster, 1991). There are at least two reasons that can account for the popularity of these techniques. First, under some conditions visual displays can serve as a more effective alternative to traditional text presentation. Second, technological advances in the display of visual information (e.g., graphics software) have made alternative spatial/textual presentations more feasible and cost effective. Despite the large increase in the use of these methods, they have received scant experimental attention. One noted exception is the knowledge map approach developed by Dansereau and his colleagues. Knowledge Maps, an alternative method of text presentation (Lambiotte, Dansereau, Cross, & Reynolds, 1989), display text in a two dimensional spatial network . A series of experiments have found that this method is an effective format for the presentation of academic text. Not only has the method been found effective for enhancing the learning of text information (Hall, Dansereau, & Skaggs, 1992; Rewey, Dansereau, Skaggs, Hall, & Pitre, 1989), it also appears to be an effective communication aid when applied within the context of cooperative learning (Patterson, Dansereau, & Newborn, 1992), and can serve to facilitate retention of information for students with low prior knowledge, when used in conjunction with a classroom lecture (Lambiotte & Dansereau, 1992).

References

R. Hall Knowledge Map Publications