Emotional design and positive emotions in multimedia learning: An eyetracking study on the use of anthropomorphisms

The present eyetracking study examined the influence of emotions on learning with multimedia. Based on a 2 × 2 experimental design, participants received experimentally induced emotions (positive vs. neutral) and then learned with a multimedia instructional material, which was varied in its design (with vs. without anthropomorphisms) to induce positive emotions and facilitate learning. Learners who were in a positive emotional state before learning had better learning outcomes in comprehension and transfer tests and showed longer fixation durations on the text information of the learning environment. Although anthropomorphisms in the learning environment did not induce positive emotions, the eyetracking data revealed that learners' attention was captured by this design element. Hence, learners in a positive emotional state who learned with the learning environment that included anthropomorphisms showed the highest learning outcome and longest fixation on the relevant information of the multimedia instruction. Results indicate an attention arousing effect of expressive anthropomorphisms and the relevance of emotional states before learning.     

Emotional design in multimedia learning: Differentiation on relevant design features and their effects on emotions and learning

Previous research into multimedia learning has mainly focused on cognitive factors to investigate different instructional conditions and design principles. Emotional factors have so far been widely neglected. However, recent studies showed that the emotional design of multimedia learning material can evoke positive emotions in learners that in turn facilitate the learning process. Following this lead, our study aims to further explore the potential of an emotional design. We seek to differentiate the current findings by systematically deducing emotionally relevant design features and also taking into account negative emotional states. In order to deduce relevant design features, we adopt concepts from web design. German college students (N = 334) were assigned to one of nine conditions, created by two design factors (classical vs. expressive aesthetics), each with two levels (high vs. low) and a usability factor (high vs. low usability) as well as a control group (no color/gray scale). Unexpectedly, objective differences in aesthetics or usability did not affect learners’ emotional states. However, the perceived aesthetics and usability positively affected the emotional states of the learners. Learners’ emotional states had a minor impact on learning outcomes but a larger impact on learners’ intrinsic motivation, including the motivation to continue working with the material.     

Learning with hypermedia: The influence of representational formats and different levels of learner control on performance and learning behavior

In this paper, two experiments on the use of hypermedia environments for learning about probability theory are reported. In Experiment 1a it was tested whether multimedia design principles (multimedia principle, modality principle, redundancy principle) are valid in hypermedia environments, despite the fact that hypermedia offers more learner control than multimedia. The results showed only little evidence for this validity, although the hypermedia environment entailed only a rather low level of learner control. In Experiment 1b it was investigated how learner control affects performance and how its possible impact is moderated by learners’ prior knowledge. A high level of learner control positively affected the effectiveness of instruction only with regard to intuitive knowledge, but was at the same time accompanied by large increases in learning time, thereby rendering the instruction inefficient. Unexpectedly, effects of learner control were not moderated by students’ prior knowledge. The results imply that the idea to use multimedia design principles for hypermedia learning is too simple and that the benefits and drawbacks of learner control depend heavily on learning objectives and time constraints.     

An eye-tracking study of cueing effects in multimedia learning

In order to assess the effects of attention guiding during the learning of a multimedia document comprising static diagrams and spoken explanations, we recorded the eye movements of participants exposed to a digital learning environment either with or without visual cues. As predicted, the presence of cues (an item changing colour when it was verbally evoked) limited the amount of time spent fixating the less relevant areas of the interface, thereby allowing for more synchronized processing of the visual and auditory sources of information that referred to each other, and better learning (though not deep comprehension) of the signalled information. These results suggest that visual cues can direct attention to the right areas of the screen at the right time, thereby promoting learning.     

An eye-tracking study of how color coding affects multimedia learning

Color coding has been proposed to promote more effective learning. However, insufficient evidence currently exists to show how color coding leads to better learning. The goal of this study was to investigate the underlying cause of the color coding effect by utilizing eye movement data. Fifty-two participants studied either a color-coded or conventional format of multimedia instruction. Eye movement data were collected during the study. The results indicate that color coding increased retention and transfer performance. Enhancement of learning by color coding was due to efficiency of locating corresponding information between illustration and text. Color coding also attracted attention of learners to perceptually salient information.     

Future integrated learning environments with multimedia

Abstract  Recent progress in information technology hardware and the spread of the Internet have opened a variety of new ways for many fields. Although slower than the business field to catch up with these new developments, the educational field has gradually migrated towards the World-wide web, mostly under the slogan of free, accessible education, to and from anyplace, at anytime. This development triggered an important shift from the teaching paradigm to the learning paradigm. However, slow network speed hindered the first learning environments from being more than simple, electronic text-books. The latest trends making use of increased bandwidths and integrating various media to enhance learning. Moreover, for obtaining learner-oriented, customised learning environ-ments, intelligent tutoring techniques are being adapted and developed for the web. This paper presents these trends on one hand, but on the other hand, also addresses the dangers and pitfalls that such an avalanche of change can bring and stresses the task of ensuring that the real goal of enhancing and improving learning is not overlooked.     

Cognitive and affective effects of seductive details in multimedia learning

The present study integrates cognitive and affective aspects of media processing in order to make an argument for reexamining the current cold cognition perspective in multimedia research in favor of a more integrative perspective. The Cognitive-Affective-Theory-of-Learning-with-Media (CATLM) assumes that students need to become motivated to make full use of their cognitive resources. Therefore, and even though seductive details (sds) are additional interesting but unnecessary pieces of information that do not conform with the coherence principle, their possible motivational role should not be dismissed. Using a 2 × 3-experimental design, participants (N = 123) were asked to learn about biology with multimedia instruction that manipulated modality (text vs. narration) and presence of seductive details (no-sds vs. textual-sds vs. narrated-sds). Results of variance analyses show a modality effect. In addition, moderated mediation analyses with the moderator modality and mediator situational interest confirm the affective mediation assumption with the following two conditional effects. A direct detrimental effect of seductive details on learning performance under the text-condition and an indirect compensatory effect under the narration-condition were shown.     

The personalization effect in multimedia learning: The influence of dialect

The personalization effect states that through addressing a learner personally or formulating multimedia instruction in a personal way the learning outcome is improved. This effect can be explained either with higher social presence, with stronger self-reference or with more familiarity of personal messages. Based on these explanations, using a regional dialect instead of standard language should also improve the learning outcome. Two hundred and ten Austrian pupils at a lower secondary school viewed a narrated animation concerning computer networks. The students were randomly assigned to one cell of a 2 (formal or personalized) × 2 (standard German or Austrian dialect) between-subjects factorial design. Results confirmed the personalization effect for retention and transfer performance, showing a stronger effect for transfer. This result is discussed as well as the partly significant findings for the factor speech and the significant interaction effect between personalization and speech on learners’ interest.     

The role of spatial ability when fostering mental animation in multimedia learning: An ATI-study

The present Aptitude-Treatment-Interaction (ATI) study investigates the learner characteristic spatial ability (aptitude) and the variation of mental-animation prompts (treatment: no vs. mental-animation prompts). A group of high-school students (N = 94) learned about a biology topic through learner-paced multimedia instruction. Some of the learners received mental-animation prompts and others learned without prompts. A fine-grained analysis with spatial ability as continuous aptitude variable and mental animation as treatment showed a positive learning effect of animation prompts in learning outcomes of processes, but not in knowledge about structures. In addition, spatial ability only modified the relationship between animation prompts and learning when analyzing knowledge about processes. Specifically, only learners of low to medium spatial ability profited from the prompts while learners with very low or high spatial ability had comparable results when learning with or without prompts. In addition, only learners with high spatial ability rated their cognitive load to be significantly higher when learning with prompts. Results align with the assumptions of the production deficiency of learners with low to medium spatial ability, mediation deficiency of learners with very low spatial ability and stable learning performance of learners with high spatial ability whatever the learning situation offers.     

Tacit guidance for collaborative multimedia learning

Collaborative multimedia learning is a scenario placing various demands on the learners that go beyond understanding complex issues and coordinating a learning discourse. On the one hand, individuals have to mentally interrelate multiple external representations in order to understand the learning material and the underlying concepts; on the other hand, during collaboration, learners have to use the differently coded information in order to exchange conceptual knowledge. In this paper, the development and experimental evaluation of a group awareness tool (collaborative integration tool) is presented that is intended to simultaneously support both individual and collaborative learning processes during dyadic collaborative multimedia learning. The tool was experimentally compared with an integration task that already proved to foster meaningful individual learning processes. The results suggest that providing group awareness can lead to better individual learning gains by reducing demanding processes and by tacitly guiding learner interactions.     

An examination of two mental workload measurement approaches to understanding multimedia learning

This study reports on an examination of two measures of mental workload: the NASA-TLX and Paas’ Subjective Cognitive Load (SCL) measure. The goal was to assess the relative efficacy of the measures in the design and research of multimedia learning environments. Benchmarks based on the literature as to the goals for mental workload measurement in learning research are established. A multifaceted study was conducted which manipulated various aspects of mental workload in order to study the utility of these two measures in detecting changes in load and their relationship to learning outcomes. The results indicate that the weighted version of the NASA-TLX provided little additional value over the unweighted version of the measure. While both the NASA-TLX and SCL measures were sensitive to changes in both intrinsic and extraneous load, the study revealed differences in the measures based on levels of each of these load factors. The study also concludes that a better understanding of the third factor, germane load, will be needed to both expand the theoretical framework about mental workload in instructional settings and further understand the utility of these two measures.     

Modality and cueing in multimedia learning: Examining cognitive and perceptual explanations for the modality effect

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of modality (written text vs. spoken text) and visual cueing (low cueing vs. high cueing) on the learning and mental effort of participants studying a computer-based static diagram at their own pace. Participants were randomly assigned to four versions of the computer-based materials formed into a 2 × 2 factorial design by crossing modality with cueing. The results revealed a reverse modality effect, wherein participants studying written text outperformed those studying spoken text on tests of free recall, matching, comprehension, and spatial recall, but not mental effort. Information cueing did not significantly affect either performance or mental effort. These findings are discussed in the context of two popular explanations of the modality effect: the cognitive resources explanation and the perceptual resources explanation. The results were best explained from a perceptual resources viewpoint.     

一种间歇过程的综合预测迭代学习控制方法

为了提高迭代学习控制方法在间歇过程轨迹跟踪问题中的收敛速度,本文将批次间的比例型迭代学习控制与批次内的模型预测控制相结合,提出了一种综合应用方法.首先根据间歇过程的线性模型,预测出比例型迭代学习控制的系统输出,然后在批次内采用模型预测控制,通过极小化一个二次型目标函数来获得控制增量.该方法可使系统输出跟踪期望轨迹的速度比比例型迭代学习控制方法更快些.最后通过仿真实例验证了该方法的有效性.     

Fostering multimedia learning of science: Exploring the role of an animated agent’s image

Research suggests that students learn better when studying a picture coupled with narration rather than on-screen text in a computer-based multimedia learning environment. Moreover, combining narration with the visual presence of an animated pedagogical agent may also encourage students to process information deeper than narration or on-screen text alone. The current study was designed to evaluate three effects among students learning about the human cardiovascular system: the modality effect (narration vs. on-screen text), the embodied agent effect (narration + agent vs. on-screen text), and the image effect (narration + agent vs. narration). The results of this study document large and significant embodied agent and image effects on the posttest (particularly retention items) but surprisingly no modality effect was found. Overall, the results suggest that incorporating an animated pedagogical agent – programmed to coordinate narration with gaze and pointing – into a science-focused multimedia learning environment can foster learning.     

Integrating written text and graphics as a desirable difficulty in long-term multimedia learning

Many principles for the design of multimedia learning materials share the recommendation to facilitate processing. One prominent example is the modality principle, according to which pictures should be presented with auditory rather than visual texts. Research on desirable difficulties, however, indicates that – unlike short-term learning – long-term learning benefits when processing is more demanding and therefore more effortful. In a classroom experiment (Experiment 1) and in a laboratory study (Experiment 2), we tested whether the modality principle serves long-term learning. In a multimedia presentation on the formation of lightning, we varied the text modality (oral vs. written) and the delay between learning and test (retention and transfer performance tested immediately after instruction vs. one week later). In the immediate tests, there was either an auditory advantage (Experiment 1) or no difference (Experiment 2). However, when learning was tested after a delay, the combined processing of written text and animations led to better transfer performance than oral text and animations in both experiments. This suggests that written text presentation serves as a desirable difficulty that supports long-term learning.