Graphs and Learning in Principles of Economics

Graphs are used extensively in the teaching of economics principles (see e.g., Myra H. Strober and Allen Cook, 1992), and instructors assume that students are capable of reproducing graphs drawn on the board or shown on an overhead projector. One purpose of this study was to verify the accuracy of this assumption. Another purpose of this inquiry was to study whether the accuracy of graphs in students' notes affects success on tests in which graphs are included. Finally, we examined the extent to which instructor handouts containing graphs presented in a lecture (but not easily available to the student elsewhere, such as in the textbook) facilitated learning. To address the above issues, we conducted a classroom experiment at the University of South Carolina during the spring semester of 1992. Our investigation was an outgrowth of our previous research on the role of cognitive variables in learning principles of economics (Cohn et al., 1993).