Reading for learning frequently requires integrating text and picture information into coherent knowledge structures. To investigate how students’ competencies for text-picture integration develop, a representative sample of integration task was selected from schoolbooks and used for the construction of items, which were presented to 1060 students from grades 5 to 8 of different kinds of German schools. Based on item-response theory, 240 items requiring integration at different hierarchical levels were selected according to a 1parameter logistic test model. A cognitive item analysis suggests that text-picture integration requires flexible combinations of a limited set of cognitive procedures that operate on task-specific mental models. Difficulties of text-picture integration items in terms of Raschscaling could be successfully predicted based on cognitive task analysis including structural characteristics of test units and procedural requirements of items.
Keywords: Multimedia, text-picture integration, schoolbooks.

Wolfgang Schnotz, Mark Ullrich, Ulrike Hochpochler, Holger Horz, Nele McElvany, Sascha Schroeder, Jürgen Baumert, in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA " 1/2011, pp. 103-135, DOI:10.3280/RIP2011-001006