JOE MOAK & DAVIS NICHOLSON
Age 12 | Wheatley River and New Glasgow, Prince Edward Island
Canada-Wide Science Fair 2018 Excellence Award: Junior Silver Medal
We developed this idea for the project because we are avid comic readers and creators. Reading graphic novels is interesting to us because we love seeing the images to help us visualize the plot and characters. When creating graphic novels and comics, we are able to utilize our art skills while still maintaining storytelling aspects. However, as we entered intermediate grades, parents and teachers continued telling us to leave the graphic novels behind as they were “too simple” or “quick reads.” That’s when we wondered: was there any basis to this assumption? We decided to investigate if there was a difference between reading comprehension of text and graphic novels at different ages.
BACKGROUND
We developed this idea for the project because we are avid comic readers and creators. Reading graphic novels is interesting to us because we love seeing the images to help us visualize the plot and characters. When creating graphic novels and comics, we are able to utilize our art skills while still maintaining storytelling aspects. However, as we entered intermediate grades, parents and teachers continued telling us to leave the graphic novels behind as they were “too simple” or “quick reads.” That’s when we wondered: was there any basis to this assumption? We decided to investigate if there was a difference between reading comprehension of text and graphic novels at different ages.
Long, written novels have been around for thousands of years but, just in the last century, a new sort of text appeared: the comic book. Comics had their golden age between the 1930’s to 50’s, and remain a huge hit.[1, 2] Japanese manga,[3] medieval tapestries,[4] and even cave paintings predate the earliest comics. More recently, graphic novels have become many young readers’ choice of text. Children like comics and graphic novels, but parents constantly push children to read “real books” because they believe one doesn’t get much information out of a comic.[5]However, there are limited studies on the impact of graphic novels on reading. We attempted to conduct an experiment around this type of literature to investigate differences in reading comprehension.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this experiment was to see if children under 18 (minors) or adults over 30 would remember more details if they were given pictures outlining a story, versus reading a story with text only.
HYPOTHESIS
We hypothesize that younger people will remember more details after reading a graphic story versus reading the same story in plain text. We also think that older people will better comprehend a written text versus a text with graphics.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We created two comparable short stories (Text A, Text B) with a basic problem and resolution. When writing the story, we kept it simple but detailed. After writing an average length paragraph, we created the same story in the form of a graphic novel or comic (Graphic A, Graphic B). Next, we thought of seven questions to test the participants’ memory. We created four surveys using an online survey website (surveymonkey.com), one for each text story and one for each graphic story. Each of the 100 participants (50 adults and 50 children) were given two surveys to complete: one with the graphic and one with the paragraph (for example, Graphic A and Text B, or Graphic B and Text A) for a total of 200 responses. Having the participants complete one of each graphic and text surveys allowed a kind of control called a ‘crossover.’ A crossover control ensured that we didn’t accidentally collect responses from a group of people who happened to be good at reading one type of text or the other. Once the responses were collected, we analyzed the data and statistical trends. Average scores were compared using t-tests. Statistical significance was defined by a p-value of less than 0.05.
RESULTS
We collected 200 responses organized into the following groups: 50-Text A (25 adults, 25 children), 50-Graphic A (25 adults, 25 children), 50-Text B (25 adults, 25 children), 50-Graphic B (25 adults, 25 children). Each response was scored out of seven possible correct answers.
We compiled the data from both stories and both graphics into average scores and converted them into percentages. We looked at the overall scores for the written text versus graphic text. We also examined how adults’ scores compared to children’s scores on the text and on the graphic.
We found that there was very little difference between the average scores when comparing participants of all ages, as shown in Graph 1 (text overall = 83.14%, graphic = 80.43%). When we compared how adults scored on the text compared to children, we found that adults scored significantly higher (see Table 1). However, when comparing the graphic scores of these two groups, the scores revealed very little difference. Next, we examined the average score of the adults, comparing text versus graphic. We found that there was a difference, with the score for the text being significantly higher. When looking at average scores of the children (text versus graphic), we found a small difference. Children performed better on the graphic text. We performed t-tests and calculated the p-values for these comparisons (p-value level set to 0.05) and found that the results for adults (text versus graphic) and for overall text (adults versus children) were statistically significant.
Table 1.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
DISCUSSION
Our hypothesis was partially correct. In our analysis, we found that adults performed significantly better when tested on the text paragraph instead of the graphic text. However, children performed better when given the graphic text versus the paragraph, but this comparison was found to be statistically insignificant. However, we did find it interesting that the children had a more equivalent score when comparing the paragraph and the graphic text. The results for the adults had a greater difference. This may be due to less exposure, or lack of interest that adults have in graphic novels. Since the graphic novel format is relatively recent, it would be interesting to examine the results within the next few years to discover if anything changes.
A problem we had with the experiment was repeat bias. When we talked to some of the participants, they found that they were not quite sure what to look for in the first survey, but when starting the second, they knew what type of questions they would be asked and paid more attention to details. This could have affected our results, with participants achieving a higher score on the second survey than the first. We could avoid this by giving more detailed instructions, or offering a practice trial before the survey.
Another problem was story design. We attempted to ensure that the two surveys were equal in terms of difficulty. The results did show that they were similar in average scores, but it was found that Text/Graphic B was slightly easier than Text/Graphic A. To improve our project, we would make the questions more difficult because majority of the participants had very high scores. A different experiment could use audio or video files portraying the story to see if there are differences with these types of learning. We could also time the participants, to see how long it would take for them to complete the paragraph or possibly test their memory after an hour or a day.
A graphic text may help the reader visualize the surroundings of the character(s) and hence more easily memorize what was in the picture. Research has shown that the brain processes visual data 60,000 times faster than text.[6] This combination of text and images should help the reader recognize more of the story elements. Younger people may be more receptive to drawings because they are more familiar with that style of literature, given the recently increased volume of graphic publications available. Older people may be more experienced reading plain text and may not be as familiar with the graphic novel format. Perhaps this could aid teachers to help children who often struggle in reading, as inclusion of colour and pictures in narratives could motivate students to read more. [7] It could also help children with learning disorders comprehend material better and be able to excel at reading.
CONCLUSION
Our hypothesis stated that young people (<18 years) will better comprehend a graphic text versus a written text and that adults (>30 years) will remember details of a written text better than a graphic text. Our results showed that adults did perform better when tested on details of a written text versus a graphic text. Although it appears the younger group comprehended a graphic text better than a written text, the results are not statistically significant.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to acknowledge our parents who helped us along the preparation for CWSF. Marti Hopson aided us with the experiment design and written report. Peter Moak helped with the T-Tests and explained the statistics to us. We would also like to acknowledge Mme. Maria Lavoie and Mme. April MacNevin for preparing us for regional science fair and proofreading our report. Finally, we would like to thank the participants who gave up some of their time to complete our survey.
REFERENCES
[1] Comic Book. How Products Are Made. Retrieved from:
(http://www.encyclopedia.com/manufacturing/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/comic-book)
[2] The Golden Age of Comics. History Detectives. Retrieved from:(http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/the-golden-age-of-comics/)
[3] Wikipedia contributors. Kibyōshi. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (June 22, 2018). Retrieved from: (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kiby%C5%8Dshi&oldid=847019812)
[4] Locker, Melissa. What is the Bayeux Tapestry? Five things to know about the historic “first comic strip” (January 17, 2018). Retrieved from: (https://www.fastcompany.com/40517724/what-is-the-bayeux-tapestry-5-things-to-know-about-the-historic-first-comic-strip)
[5] English, Melanie. Raising Super Readers: The Benefits of Comic Books and Graphic Novels (October 22, 2014). Retrieved from:
(http://www.scholastic.com/parents/blogs/scholastic-parents-raise-reader/raising-super-readers-b enefits-comic-books-and-graphic-novels)
[6] Thermopylae Sciences + Technology, Humans Process Visual Data Better, (September 15,
2014), Retrieved from: (http://www.t-sciences.com/news/humans-process-visual-data-better)
[7] How Comics Can Reach Reluctant Readers. Retrieved from:
(http://www.diamondbookshelf.com/Home/1/1/20/182?articleID= 37708)
JOE MOAK AND DAVIS NICHOLSON
Joe Moak (Wheatley River) and Davis Nicholson ( New Glasgow) are grade 7 students (as of CWSF 2018) at Gulf Shore Consolidated School in Prince Edward Island. Davis and Joe have worked together for two years for science fair. This year their project involves testing the ability to comprehend comics versus plain text. They chose this idea because they both love drawing and reading comics. Their project was awarded an Excellence Award Silver Medal (junior) at CWSF 2018.
APPENDIX: GRAPHICS AND QUESTIONS
Graphic A.
Text/Graphic A: Questions
1. What is your age?
Under 18 or over 30 years
2. What is your gender?
Male /Female
3. What colour was Rover’s collar / leash?
Purple collar, green leash
Green collar, purple leash
Red collar, purple leash
Red collar, yellow leash
4. Rover was owned by a person named - ?
Jim
Bob
Susan
Jeff
5. Rover is a ______ dog with ______ ?
Black, white spots
White, brown spots
Brown, white spots
Yellow, brown stripes
6. Rover went for a walk on _______?
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
7. Why did Rover run away?
He chased a squirrel across the street
He chased a car down the street
He wanted to go live with another family
He and his owner had an argument
He was hungry and smelled hamburgers
8. When the owner put up posters, the weather was ______?
Sunny, Snowing, Foggy, Raining
9. How was Rover found?
Someone saw the poster and returned him
Rover jumped out from behind a dumpster
Rover found his own way home
Rover jumped out from behind some bushes
Rover jumped out from behind a tree
Graphic B.
Text/Graphic B: Questions
1. What is your age?
Under 18 or over 30 years
2. What is your gender?
Male /Female
3. What was the color of Sung-Min’s family’s car?
Red, Yellow, Blue, Silver
4. Sung-Min saw a ___ run from the road
Pidgeon, Coyote, Fox, Seagull
5. What country did Sung-Min move to?
Canada
South Korea
America
Sweden
6. What day of the week did he go to school?
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
7. What animal was on the banner?
Sleeping Kitten
Growling Bear
Furious Wolf
Roaring Tiger
8. What was the name of the school?
Central State Middle School
Westwood Middle School
Sarenton Middle School
Seaside Middle School
9. What is the name of Sung-Min’s friend?
Felix, Liam, Owen, Joshua