The Function of Annotations in the Comprehension of Scientific Texts: Cognitive Load Effects and the Impact of Verbal Ability

concepts, and transforming pictures, defined as supporting higher-level cognitive processes, can both be thought of as integrationlevel annotations, that is, annotations that support higher-level processes, such as the integration of visual and verbal representations, and their integration with prior knowledge. The availability of selection-level, organization-level, and integration-level annotations, each supporting different cognitive processes, addresses different levels of encoding of information. Selection-level annotations, though enabling the higher-level processes, primarily support encoding of factual knowledge at a low (rote learning) level. Organization-level annotations, supporting the connection of words into ideas, support the comprehension of the information in the text. Integration-level annotations, focusing on relationships between visual and verbal information and prior knowledge, support higher-level cognitive outcomes, such as synthesis, evaluation, and the creation of new ideas (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). The focus of this study was to ascertain if each of the processes of selecting, organizing, and integrating information can be selectively supported by annotations in a science text, and if the availability of these annotations will differentially affect cognitive outcome measures on three different levels: (a) factual knowledge, (b) comprehension, and (c) higher-level learning (synthesis, evaluation, creating).