Illustration Setting In Electronic Learners’ Dictionaries From The Users’ Cognitive Perspective

This thesis intends to figure out a cognition-adaptive model for illustration setting in electronic learners’ dictionaries.It is based on a solid empirical study which is designed to find out the connection between the users’ cognitive features and their preferences for certain types of illustrations selected for the same headword.Although illustrations emerged in dictionaries very early,studies on dictionary illustrations seem behindhand both theoretically and practically.As digital techniques develop,electronic dictionaries provide illustration representation with much more possibilities to satisfy the users’ cognitive needs.Dictionary illustrations are classified from a cognitive perspective under the theoretical guidance of cognitive psychology of information processing(CPIP)right after the literature review.Simulating the information processing in human mind,dictionary illustrations are divided into three categories and nine subcategories,among which,five forms of illustrations are explained.Under the guidance of cognitive theory of multimedia learning(CTML),the Questionnaire of Individual Cognitive Features and Preferences for Illustrations(QICFPI)is designed to estimate the connection between the users’ cognitive features and their preferences for certain types of illustrations categorized before.QICFPI is a combination of Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire(OSIVQ)and Questionnaire of Users’ Preferences for Dictionary Illustrations(QUPDI).Significant differences in users’ preferences for illustration types are found across object visualizers,spatial visualizers and verbalizers.Last but not least,five guiding principles and the cognition-adaptive model for illustrations setting in electronic learners’ dictionaries are put forward based on the theoretical framework of CTML and CPIP.A prototype of electronic dictionary designed on the basis of the model are showed to represent the most concrete illustrations for object visualizers and abstract ones for spatial visualizers and verbalizers.