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Turn a process, a sequence or a layout into a simple picture with its words beside each part, fix a split page, and redraw the pair from memory.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will pair a simple picture with the words that explain it, spot a picture alone, words alone or the two kept apart, and redraw the pair from memory.
Lessons 7 and 8 worked on meaning with words: a because for a fact, a reason for a step. This lesson adds a second kind of representation. Much of what you study has a shape — a process, a sequence, a layout, a structure — and a picture of that shape, with words set beside it, gives you two linked ways into the same idea.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Dual coding | Pairing a picture — a diagram, timeline, map or sketch — with words that explain it, in the same place. |
| Visual | Here: any drawing that shows structure — parts, order, position or change. Artistic skill does not matter. |
| Spatial contiguity | Putting each piece of text right next to the part of the picture it describes. |
| Split attention | The extra effort of flipping between a picture and its explanation kept in different places. |
| Draw and explain | Redrawing the picture from memory and writing the words beside it, then checking both against the source. |
Words describe; pictures show. A paragraph on Earth's layers tells you the outer core is liquid. A cutaway shows you where the outer core sits. Each is clearer with the other beside it, and together they give you two routes back to the idea when you need it.
Dual coding takes four moves. Find the shape: is the material a process, a sequence in time, a layout, or a set of parts? Draw it simply: boxes and arrows, a line with marks, a rough map. Put the words on it: write each explanation right beside the part it explains, not in a legend below. Retrieve both: later, with the book shut, redraw the picture and write the words from memory, then check.
There are three ways the pairing breaks: a picture alone (you remember a shape and not what it means), words alone (you know the sentences but not how the parts fit), and the two kept apart (a diagram on one page and its explanation on another, so your attention is split).
Another way: picture
Think of a subway map with the station names printed beside each dot. Without the names, it is a pretty set of lines; without the lines, it is a list you cannot navigate.
Another way: steps
Allan Paivio's dual coding theory (1971, 1986) proposes that the mind keeps words and images in two linked systems. It is one explanation for a long-standing finding: pictures, and words for things you can picture, are usually remembered better than abstract words.
Richard Mayer's experiments on multimedia learning (summed up in Mayer, 2009) found that people learn more from words and pictures together than from words alone. They learn more still when the words sit next to the part of the picture they describe, and when decorative extras are left out. The IES practice guide (Pashler and colleagues, 2007) recommends combining graphics with verbal descriptions. And Wammes, Meade and Fernandes (2016) found that people who drew words' meanings later recalled more of them than people who wrote the words out.
Notice what the evidence is about: the material and the pairing. It is not about some people being "visual". The benefit of a good diagram with its words applies broadly, which is exactly why the next lesson takes the learning-styles idea apart.
Different material has different shapes. A process — photosynthesis, digestion, how a bill moves through Congress — becomes boxes joined by arrows. A sequence in time becomes a timeline, ideally to scale so the gaps show. A layout — a building, a store, a region — becomes a rough map. A structure — a cell, the layers of Earth — becomes a labeled sketch. Some material has no useful shape: a list of vocabulary or a definition. Do not force a drawing onto it; use retrieval instead.
A picture adds work if it explains nothing. A photo of a volcano next to a paragraph on Earth's core is decoration: your eye goes to it, and nothing comes back. A diagram with its key printed on another page makes you hold one while hunting for the other. Cut the first; fix the second by writing the words onto the diagram itself.
The US Geological Survey describes the water cycle as water moving continuously between the land, the oceans and the atmosphere. Water evaporates, mostly from the oceans; water vapor condenses into clouds; precipitation falls as rain or snow; and on land it runs off into streams or soaks into the ground, and eventually returns to the oceans.
A fictional student, Ana, has this as two pages of text. She draws a loop: ocean at the bottom, a cloud at the top, land to one side. On each arrow she writes one line — evaporation: the Sun heats surface water into vapor, condensation: vapor cools into cloud droplets, precipitation: droplets grow and fall, runoff and infiltration: water flows to streams or soaks in. Two days later she shuts the book and redraws the loop. She gets three arrows and forgets infiltration. That one arrow, and its line, is what she restudies. Two pages have become one picture she can rebuild.
"Dual coding means using lots of colors and images." Decoration adds nothing. The picture must show structure, and its words must sit beside it.
"I am not a visual learner, so this is not for me." The evidence is about pictures and words together helping people broadly, not about a type of person.
"Looking at the diagram is enough." Looking is review. Redrawing it from memory with the words is retrieval.
"I cannot draw." Boxes, arrows and a line with marks are all it takes. Neatness is not the point; structure is.
Find the shape of the material.
Process: things go into a leaf, things come out
A process becomes boxes and arrows.
Draw it simply.
Leaf in the middle; arrows in from the Sun, the roots and the air; arrows out to the air and the plant
Five arrows are the whole structure; no shading needed.
Write the words beside each arrow.
In: sunlight (energy), water (from roots), carbon dioxide (from air). Out: oxygen (to air), glucose (food for the plant).
Each arrow's words sit on it, so nothing is split across the page.
Redraw and re-explain from memory, then check.
Day 2: four arrows drawn; glucose missing → restudy one arrow
The redraw is the retrieval, and the check shows the one gap.
Spot the split.
Diagram on page 40; descriptions of crust, mantle, outer core and inner core on page 43
Flipping pages to match words to parts splits attention.
Move the words onto the diagram.
Crust: thin, rocky outer layer. Mantle: about 2,900 km of hot rock. Outer core: liquid iron and nickel. Inner core: solid.
Each description now sits beside its layer.
Cut the decoration.
Volcano photo on page 41 → left out of the notes
It explains nothing about the layers, so it only adds load.
Test the pair from memory.
Blank circle → four layers drawn, four lines written, checked ✓
Both halves came back together, from memory.
Find the shape.
A sequence in time: set out May 1804, reached the Pacific November 1805, back in St. Louis September 1806
Dates in order become a timeline.
Draw it to scale.
A line with one mark for each season, 1804 to 1806; three events marked
To scale, the picture shows the trip out took longer than the trip back.
Write the words under each mark.
A fictional student is revising how plants make food. Which plan is dual coding?
A fictional student turns a paragraph on the founding of the United States into a timeline drawn to scale, starting at 1776 and using 3 cm for each year. Complete the worked positions.
Place the Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781.
(1781 − 1776) × 3 = a cm from the start
Drawing to scale makes the gaps visible: the picture shows how long each stage lasted.
Place the Constitutional Convention, 1787.
(1787 − 1776) × 3 = b cm
The long gap before the Convention shows how long the Articles were tried.
Place the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, and write a line of words under each mark.
(1791 − 1776) × 3 = c cm; under each mark: what happened and why
The marks are the picture; the lines under them are the words. Together they are the pair.
Five fictional study pages about Earth's layers. Name the arrangement of each: paired, picture alone, words alone, kept apart, or decoration.
| Arrangement | |
|---|---|
| Cutaway with each layer labeled and explained beside it | |
| Cutaway with no labels | |
| Three paragraphs, no picture | |
| Cutaway on page 40, explanation on page 43 | |
| Paragraph with an unrelated volcano photo |
A fictional student is drawing the rock cycle. Her diagram has three arrows, each pointing into one kind of rock. Choose the words to write right beside each arrow.
| Words beside the arrow | |
|---|---|
| Arrow into igneous rock | |
| Arrow into sedimentary rock | |
| Arrow into metamorphic rock |
A fictional student redraws a textbook diagram of 12 labeled parts from memory. She draws 5 of the parts, and writes the explanation beside 3 of those. How many parts are missing from her drawing, and how many are drawn with no words beside them?
Parts missing from the drawing: a
Parts drawn with no words: b
A fictional new employee at a grocery store has to learn where every department is. She has four study aids. Name each one's arrangement and choose the fix.
| Arrangement | Fix | |
|---|---|---|
| Floor map with aisle numbers only | ||
| List of departments and aisles | ||
| Map on the wall, list in the handbook | ||
| Map with each department written in its aisle |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
A fictional student is drawing the path food takes through the digestive system as a flow diagram. For each part, give its place along the path (1 to 5) and choose the words to write beside it.
| Place in the path | Words beside it | |
|---|---|---|
| Stomach | ||
| Mouth | ||
| Large intestine | ||
| Esophagus | ||
| Small intestine |
You can pair a picture with its words. Pick one process or sequence from your own notes, draw it with the words beside each part, and redraw it from memory tomorrow. Next: why learning styles are a myth. You can stop in the middle of any of this. Closing the page is the whole of stopping — your place and anything you had typed are already saved, and the lesson opens again where you left it.
12. Your turn: the Lewis and Clark expedition as a timeline, step 3
Left the St. Louis area / reached the Pacific coast / returned to St. Louis
Each mark now carries its event in words, right beside it.