Investigating the Modality and Redundancy Effects for Learners with Persistent Pain

Two experiments were conducted to investigate how individuals with persistent pain would respond to instructional materials designed to promote the modality and redundancy effects. It was predicted that persistent pain would reduce the positive impact of narrated text due to reduced working memory capacity. One hundred thirty-seven full-time teachers from six schools in Australia participated in the study. Pain and pain-free participants were identified and matched through a demographics questionnaire before being randomly assigned to selected instructional formats. In both experiments, participants viewed system-paced multimedia presentations depicting how lightning works. In Experiment 1, it was found that for pain-free participants, illustrations plus narrated text led to significantly higher learning outcomes than illustrations plus written text (a modality effect). However, for pain participants, no advantage was found for the illustrations plus narrated text format. In Experiment 2, it was found that for pain-free participants, illustrations plus narrated text led to significantly higher learning outcomes than illustrations plus narrated text plus identical written text (a redundancy effect). For pain participants, a reverse effect was found, suggesting that the replicated written text format was not redundant but beneficial for these individuals. Furthermore, despite low scores on standardized pain measures, individuals with persistent pain achieved significantly lower learning outcomes than pain-free participants in both experiments. It was concluded that clinically low levels of pain could significantly interfere with information retention and transference. For individuals with persistent pain, the use of narrated explanatory text could be a disadvantage due to its transitory nature.     

The Role of Working Memory in Multimedia Instruction: Is Working Memory Working During Learning from Text and Pictures?

A lot of research has focused on the beneficial effects of using multimedia, that is, text and pictures, for learning. Theories of multimedia learning are based on Baddeley’s working memory model (Baddeley 1999). Despite this theoretical foundation, there is only little research that aims at empirically testing whether and more importantly how working memory contributes to learning from text and pictures; however, a more thorough understanding of how working memory limitations affect learning may help instructional designers to optimize multimedia instruction. Therefore, the goal of this review is to stimulate such empirical research by (1) providing an overview of the methodologies that can be applied to gain insights in working memory involvement during multimedia learning, (2) reviewing studies that have used these methodologies in multimedia research already, and (3) discussing methodological and theoretical challenges of such an approach as well as the usefulness of working memory to explain learning with multimedia.     

Memory characteristics and modality in multimedia learning: An aptitude–treatment–interaction study

According to the modality effect in multimedia, a text accompanying a picture should be auditorily presented instead of visually in order to avoid split of attention. In two experimental studies (34 and 78 participants, respectively), the impact and possible compensatory effects of two aptitude variables, that is, memory strategy skills and working memory capacity, on multimedia learning were tested. Aptitude–treatment–interaction effects were found with respect to comprehension (Study 1) and transfer (Study 2). The modality effect was confirmed for less-skilled learners in memory strategy use but not for highly skilled ones. Memory strategy skills and working memory capacity differentially affected multimedia learning, depending on task features and demands.     

Welche Rolle spielt neben Merkmalen des Instruktionsdesigns die fachspezifische und aufgabenspezifische Motivation beim Lernen mit Multimedia im naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht?

The present paper reports on an empirical study which investigated learning with text and animations in the science classroom. In a 2?×?2 design the presence of multimedia learning material instruction (text only vs. text + animations) as well as the modality of the explanatory text (spoken vs. written) were tested. Prior to learning, students’ motivation to learn was assessed as a continuous factor. Recall and transfer were assessed immediately after learning. The results show better recall of information for learners with multimedia materials, providing the animations were accompanied by spoken text. However, in contrast to the positive effects of domain-specific motivation this multimedia effect was not evident for transfer. The effects of multimedia design were independent of motivation. Implications for future studies are discussed.     

Are poor Chinese text comprehenders also poor in written composition?

We studied the performance in three genres of Chinese written composition (narration, exposition, and argumentation) of 158 grade 4, 5, and 6 poor Chinese text comprehenders compared with 156 good Chinese text comprehenders. We examined text comprehension and written composition relationship. Verbal working memory (verbal span working memory and operation span working memory) and different levels of linguistic tasks—morphological sensitivity (morphological compounding and morphological chain), sentence processing (syntax construction and syntax integrity), and text comprehension (narrative and expository texts)—were used to predict separately narrative, expository, and argumentation written compositions in these students. Grade for grade, the good text comprehenders outperformed the poor text comprehenders in all tasks, except for morphological chain. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed differential contribution of the tasks to different genres of writing. In particular, text comprehension made unique contribution to argumentation writing in the poor text comprehenders. Future studies should ask students to read and write parallel passages in the same genre for better comparison and incorporate both instructional and motivational variables.     

Effects of organizational pictures and modality as a feedback strategy on learner comprehension and satisfaction

One of the strongest instructional interventions documented in educational literature is the use of feedback to influence learning outcomes. However, there is lack of empirical research specifically pertaining to the use of multimedia in the feedback message. The purpose of this research was to test whether organizational pictures and modality as a feedback strategy had an effect on learner comprehension and satisfaction. The research design was a 2 Multimedia (Picture Present vs. Picture Absent) × 2 Modality (Narration vs. On-screen Text) × Trial (Trial 1 vs. Trial 2) with Multimedia and Modality serving as between-subject conditions and Trial serving as a repeated measure. One-hundred fifteen university students participated in the study. Findings show statistically significant increases in comprehension scores from Trial 1 to Trial 2 assessments for all four treatment conditions. Learners in the Picture present conditions were statistically more satisfied with the learning experience. Additionally, we used eye-tracking to verify the extent to which the pictures were used in the feedback message. A discussion and recommendations for future research and feedback design are provided.     

基于认知负荷理论的多媒体教学设计探讨

认知负荷理论依据工作记忆容量的有限性和认知资源总量的恒定性,指出合理分配认知资源是有效学习的关键。在分级教学模式中,以认知负荷理论为指导的多媒体教学设计在了解学习者认知水平的基础上充分发挥多媒体的优势,设法克服工作记忆的有限性,提高学习者迁移知识和解决问题的能力。     

理查德·梅耶多媒体学习的理论基础

梅耶的多媒体学习理论是建立在坚实的理论基础和可靠的实证经验基础上的科学体系。多媒体学习的认知理论是理解多媒体学习的关键。双重通道假设、容量有限假设和主动加工假设是梅耶构建多媒体学习认知理论的基石,也是整个多媒体学习科学体系的逻辑起点。这三大假设赖以成立的理论前提正是双重编码理论、工作记忆模型、生成学习理论和认知负荷理论,由此构成了多媒体学习的理论基础。具体而言,双重编码理论和工作记忆模型为多媒体学习的认知理论构建提供了关键概念与元素;生成学习理论则为多媒体学习的认知理论构建提供了基本的解释性框架;多媒体学习的认知理论正是由这些关键概念、元素和解释性框架整合而成;而认知负荷理论则以多媒体学习的认知理论为基础,进而为多媒体教学的系列设计原理提供了关键支撑。     

Sentence comprehension in young adults with developmental dyslexia

This study investigated the effects of syntactic complexity on written sentence comprehension in compensated adults with dyslexia. Because working memory (WM) plays a key role in processing complex sentences, and individuals with dyslexia often demonstrate persistent deficits in WM, we hypothesized that individuals with dyslexia would perform more poorly on tasks designed to assess the comprehension of syntactic structures that are especially taxing on WM (e.g., passives, sentences with relative clauses). Compared to their nondyslexic peers, individuals with dyslexia were significantly less accurate and marginally slower on passive sentences. For sentences containing relative clauses, the dyslexic group was also less accurate but did not differ in response times. Covarying WM and word reading in both analyses eliminated group differences showing that syntactic deficits in adults with dyslexia are constrained by both WM and word-reading ability. These findings support previous research showing that syntactic processing deficits are characteristic of dyslexia, even among high-achieving students.     

梅耶多媒体教学设计原理的生成与架构

多媒体学习理论是一个贯通了学习理论与教学理论的科学体系。作为学习理论的多媒体学习认知理论基于双重编码理论、工作记忆模型以及生成加工理论,解释了学习者通过加工语词与画面所呈现的材料来建构知识的学习机制,属于解释性理论;作为教学理论的多媒体教学设计理论发展出一系列教学设计应遵循的原则,为教育实践提供了具有处方性意义的行动指南,属于处方性理论。解释性的学习理论为处方性的教学理论提供了扎实可靠的科学基础。在多媒体学习研究从学习理论向教学理论转化的过程中,多媒体教学设计理论是实现跃迁的关键环节,而认知负荷理论则是理论跃迁成功的关键变量。基于认知负荷理论,梅耶提出多媒体学习认知负荷三元模型,包括必要认知加工、外来认知加工和生成性认知加工。围绕这三类认知加工,梅耶及其同事进行了大量的实验研究,最终确定了12项与多媒体学习认知理论及其前提假设保持高度逻辑一贯性的多媒体教学设计原则。这些原则都是经得起实践检验的,但教学设计人员在应用的过程中,应明确各项原则的问题情境、适用范围等边际条件。     

Trends and issues in multimedia learning research in 1996–2016: A bibliometric analysis

Parallel to the recent advancements in information and communications technologies, research on multimedia learning has generated a number of theories and empirical findings. Numerous trends and issues have emerged, showing the complex and dynamic nature of multimedia learning and the associated scholarship. To provide a comprehensive knowledge map and an overview of recent research on multimedia learning, 411 peer-reviewed articles from 1996 to 2016 were analyzed to describe the empirical work in multimedia learning. A bibliometric approach was applied to reveal the most common keywords and terms and their interactions via co-word analysis. The results showed that cognitive load is the highest co-occurred keyword and that animation provided the highest number of co-occurrence relationships with other keywords in our sample. Five clusters of research trends were identified: theoretical foundations of multimedia learning, representations and principles, instructional design and individual differences, motivation and metacognition, and video and hypermedia. Despite the high co-occurrence of the terms “memory”, “working memory”, and “cognitive load”, only a few studies examined the role of individual differences in cognition such as working memory capacity in multimedia learning. The multimedia learning principles most commonly discussed in the last two decades of research are redundancy, contiguity, and coherence. Thus, more research should be conducted to empirically test the many other principles recently discussed in the Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning and address the issue of individual differences in attention and cognition during learning with multimedia.     

面向社区教育的数字化课程资源的通用教学设计

以多媒体和网络技术为核心的信息技术的飞速发展及其在社区教育领域的广泛应用,为通用教学设计在社区教育中的应用提供了技术支持。在运用通用教学设计方法对社区数字化课程资源进行设计的过程中,应以认知科学的新近研究成果中关于脑学习的三大区域——识别网络、策略网络和情感网络为依据。在理解三大学习网络上学习的特殊需求、认知能力的差异性、数字媒体的互动方式的基础上,对社区数字化课程资源的对象、目标、内容、策略、评价等进行通用教学设计,并在学习内容、支持工具、学习情境等方面整合多媒体技术,为社区学员提供多样化的选择,促进社区每个成员的发展。     

Development and formative evaluation of multimedia case studies for Instructional Design and Technology students

This study describes the development of three case studies that included a combination of multimedia production and instructional design skills within a particular setting. These case studies incorporated real-life incidents from 47 professional instructional designers. These instructional designers described a total of 146 activities involving instructional design and/or multimedia production activities. Employing an emergent theme analysis approach, nine distinct themes developed from these activities and were included in the case studies. These themes included: Collaboration; Diffusion of Innovations; Formative Evaluation; Instructional Design; Interactive Instruction; Learner Analysis; Online Instruction; Technical Infrastructure; and Video Solutions. Fifty-seven Instructional Design and Technology graduate students evaluated the effectiveness of these case studies and considered the case studies as being valuable in furthering their understanding of related multimedia production and instructional design activities. The intent of these case studies was to enable Instructional Design and Technology students to comprehend the relationship between multimedia production and instructional design activities.     

Are instructional design elements being used in module writing?

This paper discusses the elements of instructional design (ID) and technical design in module writing. An evaluation instrument was developed to evaluate the modules written by course lecturers from the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia. In the study, fifty modules (12%) were selected from the Arts, Science and Engineering courses. The findings of the evaluation showed that instructional modules were weak in a number of elements. The study recommended that multimedia and distance learning strategies should be integrated in the learning activities. Post-test and pre-test may be considered to make the learning modules more self-contained, self-instructional, and interactive. Courses on distance learning theories, instructional design and development, media selection, media attributes, multimedia production, media integration, utilisation and management in distance and open learning may help course writers to write better modules. The Centre needs to have a standard guideline for module writing. The present guidelines need to be improved to include other ID and technical elements in module writing.     

The expertise reversal effect in prompting focused processing of instructional explanations

Providing prompts to induce focused processing of the central contents of instructional explanations is a promising instructional means to support novice learners in learning from instructional explanations. However, within research on the expertise reversal effect it has been shown that instructional means that are beneficial for novices can be detrimental for learners with more expertise if the instructional means provide guidance that overlaps with the internal guidance provided by the prior knowledge of learners with more expertise. Under such circumstances, prompts to induce focused processing might even be detrimental for learners with expertise whose prior knowledge already provides internal guidance to learn from explanations. On this basis, we aimed at experimentally varying expertise by developing prior knowledge. Specifically, we used a preparation intervention with contrasting cases to enhance learners’ prior knowledge (expertise). Against this background, we tested 71 university students in a 2 × 2 factorial experimental design: (a) Factor of expertise. Working with contrasting cases to develop prior knowledge and expertise to provide internal guidance to learn from instructional explanations (with vs. without), (b) Factor of prompts. Prompts to induce focused processing of the explanations (with vs. without). The results showed that prompts to induce focused processing fostered conceptual knowledge for novice learners whereas prompts hindered the acquisition of conceptual knowledge for learners with expertise that was developed by working with contrasting cases beforehand. Moreover, measures of subjective cognitive load and learning processes suggest that the instructional guidance provided by prompts compensated for the low internal guidance of novice learners and overlapped with the internal guidance of learners with expertise.     

Relationship of prior knowledge and working engineers’ learning preferences: implications for designing effective instruction

Continuing engineering education (CEE) is important to ensure engineers maintain proficiency over the life of their careers. However, relatively few studies have examined designing effective training for working engineers. Research has indicated that both learner instructional preferences and prior knowledge can impact the learning process, but it has not established if these factors are interrelated. The study reported here considered relationships of prior knowledge and three aspects of learning preferences of working engineers at a manufacturing company: learning strategy choices, verbal-visual cognitive styles, and multimedia preferences. Prior knowledge was not found to be significantly related to engineers’ learning preferences, indicating independence of effects of these variables on learning. The study also examined relationships of this finding to the Multimedia Cone of Abstraction and implications for its use as an instructional design tool for CEE.     

Extending Cognitive Load Theory to Incorporate Working Memory Resource Depletion: Evidence from the Spacing Effect

Depletion of limited working memory resources may occur following extensive mental effort resulting in decreased performance compared to conditions requiring less extensive mental effort. This “depletion effect” can be incorporated into cognitive load theory that is concerned with using the properties of human cognitive architecture, especially working memory, when designing instruction. Two experiments were carried out on the spacing effect that occurs when learning that is spaced by temporal gaps between learning episodes is superior to identical, massed learning with no gaps between learning episodes. Using primary school students learning mathematics, it was found that students obtained lower scores on a working memory capacity test (Experiments 1 and 2) and higher ratings of cognitive load (Experiment 2) after massed than after spaced practice. The reduction in working memory capacity may be attributed to working memory resource depletion following the relatively prolonged mental effort associated with massed compared to spaced practice. An expansion of cognitive load theory to incorporate working memory resource depletion along with instructional design implications, including the spacing effect, is discussed.     

用Flash制作多媒体作品辅助化学实验教学

介绍了用flash制作多媒体作品的点滴经验,并将其用于辅助实验教学,取得了很好的教学效果。