Multimedia instructions and cognitive load theory

Effects of modality and cueing

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5262995
AutoresHuib K Tabbers (0009-0003-6912-7683, Open University of the Netherlands, autor de correspondencia), Rob L Martens (0000-0001-7193-8125, Open University of the Netherlands), Jeroen J G Van Merriënboer (0000-0002-5868-7031, Open University of the Netherlands)
Año2004
Volumen74
Número1
Páginas71-81
Fecha de publicación2004-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaBritish Journal of Educational Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-0998 • E-ISSN: 2044-8279
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1348/000709904322848824
PMID15096299
OpenAlexW2108309120
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas50
Referencias citadas9

Background: Recent research on the influence of presentation format on the effectiveness of multimedia instructions has yielded some interesting results. According to cognitive load theory (Sweller, Van Merriënboer, & Paas, 1998) and Mayer's theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2001), replacing visual text with spoken text (the modality effect) and adding visual cues relating elements of a picture to the text (the cueing effect) both increase the effectiveness of multimedia instructions in terms of better learning results or less mental effort spent.Aims: The aim of this study was to test the generalisability of the modality and cueing effect in a classroom setting.Sample: The participants were 111 second-year students from the Department of Education at the University of Gent in Belgium (age between 19 and 25 years).Method: The participants studied a web-based multimedia lesson on instructional design for about one hour. Afterwards they completed a retention and a transfer test. During both the instruction and the tests, self-report measures of mental effort were administered.Results: Adding visual cues to the pictures resulted in higher retention scores, while replacing visual text with spoken text resulted in lower retention and transfer scores.Conclusions: Only a weak cueing effect and even a reverse modality effect have been found, indicating that both effects do not easily generalise to non-laboratory settings. A possible explanation for the reversed modality effect is that the multimedia instructions in this study were learner-paced, as opposed to the system-paced instructions used in earlier research

Cognition · Cognitive Load · Cognitive psychology · Human–computer interaction · Mental effort · Modality (human–computer interaction) · Modality effect · Multimedia · Presentation (obstetrics) · Short-term memory · Test (biology) · Working memory · Computer Science · Learning Styles and Cognitive Differences · Psychology · Second Language Acquisition and Learning · Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes