Research
1. Boerma, I. E., Mole, S. E., & Jolles, J. (2016). Reading pictures for story comprehension requires mental imagery skills. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1630. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01630
Summary: In this study, researchers examined the influence of mental imagery on the reading comprehension of 150 fifth graders. The study was comprised of two control groups and one experimental group. The two control groups used either the full chapter with words only or with images only. The experimental group read a chapter from a book that alternated text blocks followed by one to two pages of images. The findings revealed that students with higher mental imagery skills outperformed those students with lower mental imagery skills. This suggests that texts and images should be integrated in order to increase students' reading comprehension.
2. De Koning, B. B., & van der Schoot, M. (2013). Becoming part of the story!: Refueling the interest in visualization strategies for reading comprehension. Educational Psychology Review, 25, 261–287.
Summary: This article includes different ways to use visualization to encourage readers to build their own visual representations of text. The authors discuss studies and strategies already considered best practices. Multiple visualization strategies are included.