Verbal redundancy in multimedia learning: When reading helps listening.

Three studies investigated whether and under what conditions the addition of on-screen text would facilitate the learning of a narrated scientific multimedia explanation. Students were presented with an explanation about the process of lightning formation in the auditory alone (nonredundant) or auditory and visual (redundant) modalities. In Experiment 1, the effects of preceding the nonredundant or redundant explanation with a corresponding animation were examined. In Experiment 2, the effects of presenting the nonredundant or redundant explanation with a simultaneous or a preceding animation were compared. In Experiment 3, environmental sounds were added to the nonredundant or redundant explanation. Learning was measured by retention, transfer, and matching tests. Students better comprehended the explanation when the words were presented auditorily and visually rather than auditorily only, provided there was no other concurrent visual material. The overall pattern of results can be explained by a dual-processing model of working memory, which has implications for the design of multimedia instruction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Animated pedagogical agents in multimedia educational environments: Effects of agent properties, picture features and redundancy.

Two experiments explored the integration of animated agents into multimedia environments in the context of R. E. Mayer's (2001) cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Experiment 1 was a 3 (agent properties: agent only, agent with gesture, no agent) × 3 (picture features: static picture, sudden onset, animation) design. Agent properties produced no significant effects. Both sudden onset and animation conditions facilitated performance relative to the static-picture condition. In Experiment 2, we explored the effects of printed text, spoken narration, and spoken narration with the printed text, in a multimedia environment that included an agent, to investigate effects of redundancy. The spoken-narration-only condition outperformed the other 2, with no differences between printed text and printed text with spoken narration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The perceptual basis of the modality effect in multimedia learning.

Various studies have demonstrated an advantage of auditory over visual text modality when learning with texts and pictures. To explain this modality effect, two complementary assumptions are proposed by cognitive theories of multimedia learning: first, the visuospatial load hypothesis, which explains the modality effect in terms of visuospatial working memory overload in the visual text condition; and second, the temporal contiguity assumption, according to which the modality effect occurs because solely auditory texts and pictures can be attended to simultaneously. The latter explanation applies only to simultaneous presentation, the former to both simultaneous and sequential presentation. This paper introduces a third explanation, according to which parts of the modality effect are due to early, sensory processes. This account predicts that—for texts longer than one sentence—the modality effect with sequential presentation is restricted to the information presented most recently. Two multimedia experiments tested the influence of text modality across three different conditions: simultaneous presentation of texts and pictures versus sequential presentation versus presentation of text only. Text comprehension and picture recognition served as dependent variables. An advantage for auditory texts was restricted to the most recent text information and occurred under all presentation conditions. With picture recognition, the modality effect was restricted to the simultaneous condition. These findings clearly support the idea that the modality effect can be attributed to early processes in perception and sensory memory rather than to a working memory bottleneck. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A testing effect with multimedia learning.

A testing effect occurs when a learner performs better on a retention test after studying the material and taking a practice-retention test than after studying the material twice. In the present study, 282 participants watched a narrated animation about lightning formation and then watched the presentation again (restudy), took a practice-retention test (practice-retention), or took a practice-transfer test (practice-transfer). First, the testing effect was replicated with multimedia material, such that the practice-retention group outperformed the restudy group on a delayed retention test. Second, a testing effect was found for taking a practice-transfer test, such that the practice-transfer group outperformed the restudy group on a delayed transfer test. Third, the results supported a transfer-appropriate processing explanation of the testing effect, in which the practice-retention group outperformed the practice-transfer group on delayed retention but the opposite pattern was obtained on delayed transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction.

During the last 100 years, a major accomplishment of psychology has been the development of a science of learning aimed at understanding how people learn. In attempting to apply the science of learning, a central challenge of psychology and education is the development of a science of instruction aimed at understanding how to present material in ways that help people learn. The author provides an overview of how the design of multimedia instruction can be informed by the science of learning and the science of instruction, which yields 10 principles of multimedia instructional design that are grounded in theory and based on evidence. Overall, the relationship between the science of learning and the science of instruction is reciprocal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Signaling as a cognitive guide in multimedia learning.

In 3 experiments, students received a short science lesson on how airplanes achieve lift and then were asked to write an explanation (retention test) and to write solutions to 5 problems, such as how to design an airplane to achieve lift more rapidly (transfer test). For some students, the lesson contained signals, including a preview summary paragraph outlining the 3 main steps involved in lift, section headings, and pointer words such as because or as a result. The signaling did not add any additional content information about lift but helped clarify the structure of the passage. Students who received signaling generated significantly more solutions on the transfer test than did students who did not receive signaling when the explanation was presented as printed text (Experiment 1), spoken text (Experiment 2), and spoken text with corresponding animation (Experiment 3). Results are consistent with a knowledge construction view of multimedia learning in which learners seek to build mental models of cause-and-effect systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pictorial aids for learning by doing in a multimedia geology simulation game.

How can we help students learn to solve authentic geology problems within a virtual environment? The task was to survey an area of a planet's surface to identify the presence of various geological features such as a trench, ridge, basin, island, or seamount. Students who received prior pictorial representations of each of the possible features (pictorial scaffolding) performed more accurately than students who did not (in Experiments 2 and 3), but there was no significant effect (in Experiments 1 and 2) for including verbal statements about strategies for drawing lines and points (strategic scaffolding). Some cognitive apprenticeship techniques (such as pictorial scaffolding) are useful aids to learning in computer-based geology simulations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intersensory redundancy facilitates prenatal perceptual learning in bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) embryos.

Information presented redundantly and in temporal synchrony across sensory modalities (intersensory redundancy) selectively recruits attention and facilitates perceptual learning in human infants. This comparative study examined whether intersensory redundancy also facilitates perceptual learning prenatally. The authors assessed quail (Colinus virginianus) embryos' ability to learn a maternal call when it was (a) unimodal, (b) concurrent but asynchronous with patterned light, or (c) redundant and synchronous with patterned light. Chicks' preference for the familiar over a novel maternal call was assessed 24 hr following hatching. Chicks receiving redundant, synchronous stimulation as embryos learned the call 4 times faster than those who received unimodal exposure. Chicks who received asynchronous bimodal stimulation showed no evidence of learning. These results provide the first evidence that embryos are sensitive to redundant, bimodal information and that it can facilitate learning during the prenatal period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increased interestingness of extraneous details in a multimedia science presentation leads to decreased learning.

In Experiment 1, students received an illustrated booklet, PowerPoint presentation, or narrated animation that explained 6 steps in how a cold virus infects the human body. The material included 6 high-interest details mainly about the role of viruses in sex or death (high group) or 6 low-interest details consisting of facts and health tips about viruses (low group). The low group outperformed the high group across all 3 media on a subsequent test of problem-solving transfer (d = .80) but not retention (d = .05). In Experiment 2, students who studied a PowerPoint lesson explaining the steps in how digestion works performed better on a problem-solving transfer test if the lesson contained 7 low-interest details rather than 7 high-interest details (d = .86), but the groups did not differ on retention (d = .26). In both experiments, as the interestingness of details was increased, student understanding decreased (as measured by transfer). Results are consistent with a cognitive theory of multimedia learning, in which highly interesting details sap processing capacity away from deeper cognitive processing of the core material during learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new wave of innovations in psychology: High intellectual and creative educational multimedia technologies.

This article describes high intellectual and creative educational multimedia technologies (HICEMTs), which will constitute one of the innovative breakthroughs in science and technology of the 21st century and will lead to a new wave of innovations in psychology. HICEMTs appear at the intersection of many subdisciplines of psychology (including general, cognitive, developmental, educational, personality, media, cyber, and applied), education, and multimedia. The general and specific nature of HICEMTs is considered. The importance of HICEMTs is discussed from technological, economic, societal, educational, and psychological perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Varying tutorial modality and interface restriction to maximize transfer in a complex simulation environment.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 103(2) of Journal of Educational Psychology (see record 2011-10421-001). The name of the author Laura G. Torres was omitted.] In 2 experiments, 241 undergraduates with low domain knowledge viewed a tutorial on how to use Packet Tracer (PT), a computer-networking training simulation developed by the Cisco Networking Academy. Participants were then tested on retention of tutorial content and transfer using PT. Tutorial modality (text, narration, or narration plus text) was varied betweens subjects in both experiments, and simulation interface restriction (restricted or unrestricted) was varied between subjects only in Experiment 1. When PT's interface was unrestricted, students who received the narration tutorial performed better on the transfer task compared with students who received the text tutorial (statistically significant in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2). These findings extend the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2005) by testing modality effects in new contexts and further specifying conditions of its applicability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social cues in multimedia learning: Role of speaker's voice.

In 2 experiments, learners who were seated at a computer workstation received a narrated animation about lightning formation. Then, they took a retention test, took a transfer test, and rated the speaker. There was a voice effect, in which students performed better on the transfer test and rated the speaker more positively if the voice in the narration had a standard accent rather than a foreign accent (Experiment 1) and if the voice was human rather than machine synthesized (Experiment 2). The retention test results were mixed. The results are consistent with social agency theory, which posits that social cues in multimedia messages can encourage learners to interpret human-computer interactions as more similar to human-to-human conversation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Mayrath et al. (2011).

Reports an error in Varying tutorial modality and interface restriction to maximize transfer in a complex simulation environment by Michael C. Mayrath, Priya K. Nihalani and Daniel H. Robinson (Journal of Educational Psychology, , , np). The name of the author Laura G. Torres was omitted. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-01107-001.) In 2 experiments, 241 undergraduates with low domain knowledge viewed a tutorial on how to use Packet Tracer (PT), a computer-networking training simulation developed by the Cisco Networking Academy. Participants were then tested on retention of tutorial content and transfer using PT. Tutorial modality (text, narration, or narration plus text) was varied betweens subjects in both experiments, and simulation interface restriction (restricted or unrestricted) was varied between subjects only in Experiment 1. When PT's interface was unrestricted, students who received the narration tutorial performed better on the transfer task compared with students who received the text tutorial (statistically significant in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2). These findings extend the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2005) by testing modality effects in new contexts and further specifying conditions of its applicability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between instructional language and primary students' learning.

Causal modeling was used to examine how primary students' language ability interacted with pace and redundancy of instructional language during an expository science lesson to explain students' attention and learning. Language ability and pace of the instructional language, mediated by students' attention to the lesson, accounted for significant variance in learning outcomes. Higher language ability related to greater learning. Overall, slow-paced instructional language was positively related to learning, but students attended less to it than to fast-paced talk. Students with special needs attended significantly less and learned less, whereas students not so identified attended slightly less but learned more. Teachers' talk matters, but because instructional language impacts differentially on students, heuristics for modifying it are not straightforward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on the use of tests as learning devices.

Although "learning" has long been a stated aim of tests in content areas, few suggestions to facilitate this aim have been made. A method of testing illustrated in this paper, used in a beginning graduate level course in child development and educational psychology at Harvard University, appeared to have furthered the learning of some of the students. Because this method was relatively well received and appeared to contribute to decreasing the gap between teaching and testing, the authors consider it of possible value for other instructors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tests enhance the transfer of learning.

Numerous learning studies have shown that if the period of time devoted to studying information (e.g., casa-house) includes at least 1 test (casa-?), performance on a final test is improved—a finding known as the testing effect. In most of these studies, however, the final test is identical to the initial test. If the final test requires a novel demonstration of learning (i.e., transfer), prior studies suggest that a greater degree of transfer reduces the size of the testing effect. The authors tested this conjecture. In 2 experiments, 4th- or 5th-grade students learned to assign regions or cities to map locations and returned 1 day later for 2 kinds of final tests. One final test required exactly the same task seen during the learning session, and the other final test consisted of novel, more challenging questions. In both experiments, testing effects were found for both kinds of final tests, and the testing effect was no smaller, and actually slightly larger, for the final test requiring transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ubiquitous nature of the Hebb repetition effect: Error learning mistaken for the absence of sequence learning.

Sequence learning is essential in cognition and underpins activities such as language and skill acquisition. One classical demonstration of sequence learning is that of the Hebb repetition effect, whereby serial recall improves over repetitions on a repeated list relative to random lists. When addressing the question of which mechanism underlies the effect, the traditional approach is to prevent the action of processes thought to be responsible for sequence learning: If the typical Hebb repetition effect is reduced, these processes are key to the effect, researchers claim. By reanalyzing the data of F. B. R. Parmentier, M. T. Maybery, M. Huitson, and D. M. Jones (2008)—who reported no Hebb effect for sequences of auditory–spatial stimuli—we revealed that error learning can be mistaken for the absence of sequence learning. Indeed, incorrect responses are reproduced increasingly over repetitions. Our findings suggest that the Hebb repetition effect can be associated with response learning as well as stimulus processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning science in virtual reality multimedia environments: Role of methods and media.

College students learned about botany through an agent-based multimedia game. In Experiment 1, students received either spoken or identical on-screen text explanations; in addition, the lesson was presented either via a desktop display (D), a head-mounted display (HMD) used while sitting, or an HMD used while walking (W). In Experiment 2, we examined the effects of presenting explanations as narration (N), text (T), or both (NT) within the D and W conditions. Students scored higher on retention, transfer, and program ratings in N conditions than in T conditions. The NT condition produced results in between. Students gave higher ratings of presence when learning with HMDs, but media did not affect performance on measures of retention, transfer, or program ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit learning and generalization of the "mere exposure" effect.

Reports 2 experiments that examined the generalization of the "mere exposure" effect. Both experiments demonstrated that positive affect, produced by repeated viewing of a set of stimuli, generalizes to previously unseen stimuli that are similar to the exposed stimuli along certain abstract dimensions. Exp I, with 82 Ss, used letter strings constructed according to a complex rule system. Positive affect attributable to exposure generalized to novel letter strings that obeyed the rule system. Affective generalization was related to Ss' judgments of whether the novel strings obeyed the rule system. Exp II (40 Ss), in which the stimuli were complex visual patterns created by distorting standard forms, yielded an orderly gradient of affective generalization to novel patterns at varying levels of distortion. Results indicate that the exposure effect behaves in a manner similar to "implicit" concept learning and rule induction. The generalization techniques developed here provide a novel method for studying the affective processing of stimuli. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incidental learning of S-R contingencies in the masked prime task.

Subliminal motor priming effects in the masked prime paradigm can only be obtained when primes are part of the task set. In 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether the relevant task set feature needs to be explicitly instructed or could be extracted automatically in an incidental learning paradigm. Primes and targets were symmetrical arrows, with target color, not shape, the response-relevant feature. Shape and color covaried for targets (e.g., always blue, >