Hwang Sanghyeon · Park Youngmin This study investigates how visual presentation modes affect the reading comprehension of 559 middle school students assigned to text-only, high-relevance, or low-relevance visual conditions. The results reveal a U-shaped developmental pattern; Eighth graders perform worst due to cognitive load, whereas ninth graders excel in integrative processing. Notably, while the text-only condition shows a significant gender gap, visual modes mitigate these differences regardless of relevance. This indicates that the transition to ninth grade is critical for multimodal processing and that visuals can reduce gender disparities in reading achievement.