Dr. Lynne Anderson-Inman and her research team in the Center for Electronic Studying at the University of Oregon are conducting a series of studies designed to research the effective use of illustrative resources to support reading in electronic environments by secondary students with learning disabilities. Two studies are currently in progress, both working with secondary students reading high school biology texts. The first study investigates the use of static versus dynamic graphics to improve reading comprehension and conceptual understanding of key concepts. The second study investigates the differential impact on reading comprehension of “descriptive captions” versus “instructive captions” for illustrations and graphics in the biology texts.
