If a learning strategy could win the “best bang for your buck” award, graphic organizers would be a leading contender. Students say they like using them, and incorporating them into a lesson greatly improves factual recall and comprehension, according to a new study.

Researchers asked middle schoolers to read a passage about different seasons and then split the kids up into three groups: reading the text only, using completed graphic organizers, or using interactive graphic organizers they had to fill in themselves. On average, students using graphic organizers outperformed the text-only students by 42% on a test of factual recall, and by 110% on a test of deeper comprehension—with interactive graphic organizers outperforming the lot and promoting “deeper learning outcomes.”

Eye-tracking devices revealed the reason: Graphic organizers “guided students’ selective attention” to key ideas in the passage, helping them filter out less relevant information—a skill that was conspicuously absent for students who didn’t use graphic organizers.