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Virginia Tech

Visual imagery instruction with learning disabled and average achieving students

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The purpose of this two-phase study was to investigate the effects of rate of presentation and type of material on the use of visual imagery in learning disabled (LD) and average achieving (AA) students. In the first phase, a norming study, 15 LD and 15 AA students were instructed to generate images for a list of concrete paired associates. The amount of time required to generate an image and the particular inlage reported was recorded. Based upon processing time and an image similarity index, 18 easy-to-relate and 18 difficult-to-relate word pairs were identified. Two rates of presentation (5 seconds and 10 seconds) were also determined in the norming study. In the second phase, an experimental study, 40 LD and 40 AA students were presented with the word pairs derived from the norming study, at a 5 second and a 10 second rate. The experimental task involved learning the word paIrs under either imagery or rehearsal instructions. Students were tested for associative recall after each learning trial by being presented one member of each pair and being required to recall its pairmate. Subjects were subsequently asked to report on the strategies they implemented to learn the word pairs. Data were analyzed using a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 (group x instruction x presentation rate x pair difficulty) ANOVA with repeated measures on the last two factors. A series of separate imagery/rehearsal planned comparisons were conducted within each group/ presentation rate/pair difficulty combination. In addition, descriptive statistics were computed on the number and types of strategies reported by the students. Both LD and AA students benefited from the imagery strategy with both types of pairs at both rates.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Educational Research and Evaluation
Department dc:contributor.department
Educational Research and Evaluation
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
1990

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Ferro, Susan Carmel
Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Cross, Lawrence H.
  • Wildman, Terry M.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Pressley, Michael G.
  • McLaughlin, John A.
  • Billingsley, Bonnie S.
  • Wolfle, Lee M.

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-05112006-154748
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/37741

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Ferro, Susan Carmel. Visual imagery instruction with learning disabled and average achieving students. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/37741