The Effects of Auditory and Visual Stimuli on Tenth Graders' Descriptive Writing.

A study investigated whether 10-grade English students would write more descriptively when their thinking was stimulated through viewing images, or hearing music, or both. Subjects, 49 students in 2 intact classrooms in a middle-class, suburban high school in the Jurupa School District, were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups that administered visual stimuli in the form of color slides, auditory stimuli in the form of classical music, both visual and auditory stimuli, or no stimuli. All groups listened to an oral reading of a short story and then wrote a description of the story setting. Experimental groups were administered treatments during the prewriting stage while the control group began prewriting with no auditory or visual stimuli. Essays were scored and compared to results of a pre-treatment measure of writing ability. Results indicated that the use of auditory stimuli, when administered simultaneously with visual stimuli, was effective in improving students' descriptive writing in comparison to the control group. However, results did not show that access to visual stimuli alone or to auditory stimuli alone was any more effective than receiving no sensory stimuli at all during prewriting. In addition, results showed no significant difference between the effects of auditory stimuli used alone and visual stimuli used alone. (Two tables of data are included; 30 references are attached.) (RS) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** The Effects of Auditory and Visual Stimuli on Tenth Graders' Descriptive Writing oe ao INEOARMIENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educaboiel Rematch and Imixovernenf EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 44 )(Tem document hes been reproduced as received Iron, the WS°. Or orpanaation ooginating it 0 Minor changes nave 06111. made to improve reproduction Quality Points of view or op ru on a stated mine clot u sent do not neCesseribi represent offic,s1 OE RI poedon or policy Janet Black University of California, Riverside Oc-t.o6e/993 "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC). " This research study emanated from a desire to find possible significance in improved writing ability through the use of visual images or auditory stimulus or a combination of the two. A specific interest in connections between musical composition, visual composition (a grouping of pictures, photos or slides which suggests a unified theme), and written composition led the researcher to this study. Literature Review Imagery has long been recognized as one of the ways humans think. A resurgence of interest in imagery during the 1960's and 1970's, after it had been largely disregarded during the period when behavioral views dominated the field of psychology, produced a large body of research to support the importance of imagery in the thinking process. Paivio, (1971) supports studies showing a relationship between imagery and verbal processes. He sees imagery and verbal language as alternative coding systems, both capable of concreteness and abstractness, and complementary to each other in their distinct symbolic functions. Eisner (1966) supports this: ''Cognitive and visual perception