Multimedia Learning - Principles

Principles

Richard E. Mayer's "modality principle" states that if materials contain both verbal and graphical information, the verbal information should be given in auditory format only, and not as written text as well.

Theoretically, the modality principle is based on a model of working memory by Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch who proposed that working memory has two largely independent subcomponents that tend to work in parallel - one visual and one verbal/acoustic. This gave rise to dual-coding theory, first proposed by Allan Paivio and later applied to multimedia by Richard Mayer. According to Mayer, separate channels of working memory process auditory and visual information. Consequently, a learner can use more cognitive processing capacities to study materials that combine auditory verbal information with visual graphical information than to process materials that combine printed (visual) text with visual graphical information. In other words, the multi modal materials reduce the cognitive load imposed on working memory.

In a series of studies Mayer and his colleagues tested Paivio’s dual-coding theory, with multimedia. They repeatedly found that students learning given multimedia with animation and narration consistently did better on transfer questions than those who learn from animation and text-based materials. That is, they were significantly better when it came to applying what they had learned after receiving multimedia rather than mono-media (visual only) instruction. These results were then later confirmed by other groups of researchers.

The initial studies of multimedia learning were limited to logical scientific processes that centered on cause-and-effect systems like automobile braking systems, how a bicycle pump works, or cloud formation. However, subsequent investigations found that the modality effect extended to other areas of learning.

Split attention effect Mayer found that "Students learn better from animation and narration than from animation, narration, and on-screen text."

Thus it is better to eliminate redundant material. Learners do not learn as well when they both hear and see the same verbal message during a presentation. This is a special case of the split attention effect of Sweller and Chandler.

Learning is enhanced when related components such as words and pictures are presented in "spatial contiguity", referring to the components being physically close to each other on the page or screen, rather than being separated. Similarly, "temporal contiguity" refers to simultaneous presentation of corresponding words and pictures, rather than successive delivery. Learning is more effective when extraneous material is excluded rather than included, which Meyer termed, "coherence". The effects of improved design have more benefit for low-knowledge than high knowledge learners, and for high-spatial than for low-spatial learners.

Such principles may not apply outside of laboratory conditions. For example, Muller found that adding approximately 50% additional extraneous but interesting material did not result in any significant difference in learner performance. There is on-going debate concerning the mechanisms underlying these beneficial principles, and on what boundary conditions may apply.