Bock, M. (1983). The influence of pictures on the processing of texts: Reading time, intelligibility, recall, aesthetic effect, need for rereading. In G. Rickheit et M. Bock (réd.), Psycholinguistic Studies in Language Processing. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 218-236.
The influence of individual pictures on the following text variables was examined: reading time, judgement as to text intelligibility, picure recall while reading the text, accuracy and length of reproduction ability, aesthetic text effect, need to repeat the reading of the text (need for rereading). Two different texts were used: the unintelligible "balloon text" by Bransford and Johnson (1972) and an intelligible text about the history of electronic data processing ("computer text"). Each text was presented sentence by sentence, twice in succession. The subjects determined how long the individual sentences were presented. The first presentation took place without pictures. Before the second presentation the subjects saw either an appropriate picture (closely relation to the text content). The subjects of the control group received no additional pictorial information. Results: In the case of the intelligible computer text the pictures had absolutely no effect. The case was different for the unintelligible balloon text: during the second reading of the text the subjects constantly thought of the picture they had seen previously. Therefore, the appropriate picture improved the intelligibility and the aesthetic impression of the balloon text. It also led to longer text reproductions. The inappropriate picture, however, raised the need for rereading. These results support a text-theoretical consideration of picture-text interaction and refute Paivio's dual code theory. At the same time, they raise significant doubts concerning accepted practise in text illustration.