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Abstract
Background When an exam question is read, a mental representation of the task is formed in each student's mind. This processing can be affected by features such as visual resources (e.g. pictures, diagrams, photographs, tables), which can come to dominate the mental representation due to their salience.
Purpose The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of visual resources in exam questions and, in particular, to investigate how and when students use images and whether subtle changes to these salient physical features can affect whether a question is understood and answered in the way intended by the question-setters.
Sample The participants were 525 16-year-old students, with a range of ability, in four secondaryschools.
Design and methods Experimental test papers were constructed including six questions based on past examination questions and involving graphical elements. For five of the six questions, two versions were designed in order to investigate the effects of changes to visual resources on processing and responses. A sample of the students were interviewed afterwards.
Results Where two versions of a question were trialled in parallel, the differences in the visual resources significantly affected marks for one question and had smaller effects on marks and the nature of answers with some of the others. There were mixed views from students over whether a visual resource that is not strictly necessary should be used. Some considered it reassuring, whilst others deemed it unnecessary. Evidence in the literature suggests that caution may be needed since there is a risk that some students may pay too much attention to the image. Findings from one question (question 6) indicated that visuals can increase the likelihood of students making unhelpful interpretations of a question. Students were seen to have sensible expectations regarding when to use information from a visual resource and what is important in an illustration. In addition, more use tended to be made of a technical diagram (in question 12) in comparison to pictures or sketches, and it was found that if an image provides a clue to an answer, this may be used in preference to information in the text.
Evidence regarding the use that students made of a table (question 1) indicated that the data in the table cells were given more attention than some of the preceding text and text in a header. This might apply similarly to other resources like graphs and charts.
Conclusions It is important to ensure that the inclusion of a visual resource is carefully considered and appropriately designed. If a visual resource is not strictly needed in a question, the writer will need to balance the advantages and disadvantages. Authors should also consider whether and how students are likely to use or be affected by the particular visual resource chosen. The findings and suggested implications of this study are most applicable to high-stakes testing but may also be useful to those preparing school textbooks and to teachers in their preparation of classroom materials.
Acknowledgements
The question referred to as ‘Question 2: Statue’, in this paper, is reproduced by permission of QCA. The question referred to as ‘Question 5: Children's meal’ is adapted from GCSE Design and Technology: Food Technology 1460 paper 3, 1998, and is reproduced with the kind permission of OCR. The questions referred to as ‘Question 6: Products' and ‘Question 9: Components of a balanced diet’ are adapted from GCSE Salters Science Double Award 1774 paper 1, 2000, and are reproduced with the kind permission of OCR. The question referred to as ‘Question 12: Balance’ is adapted from IGCSE Physics 0625 paper 2, 1999, and is reproduced with the kind permission of CIE (University of Cambridge International Examinations).
We should also like to thank the teachers and students at the schools involved for their participation.