Here are my notes from a presentation titled Multimedia Learning that Dr. Mayer gave at USU on January 27, 2004. I had read his book by the same name previously, but it was good to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Over his 30 year career he has focused his research on:
-Transfer as a learning outcome
-Scientific and mathematical explanations about how things work
He took his first Cog Sci class (on problem solving) from Jim Greeno who he called his mentor. He has been studying problem solving for most of his career.
He took a job at UCSB out of grad school and has been there for the past 28 years. It has been a good environment for doing his research.
The lineage of his research is:
- Advance organizers
- How illustrations (pictures) can portray analogies and metaphors which can help facilitate problem solving
- Animations
While there are many guidelines out there for how to design instruction, most guidelines are not based on evidence or theory. He is attempting to discover multimedia design principles that are theory and research based.
He showed a diagram depicting the information processing model of cognition. Perception, sense making, and integration.
Me: This makes me think about what a theory behavior and cognition is. At a minimum, it is an explanation for how people function. It seems like useful theories can be used to make testable predictions.
A technology-centered approach contrasts heavily with a learner-centered approach. We should first try to understand how people learn before we try to figure out how to design instruction for them.
He makes a distinction between two main kinds of learning outcomes:
-remembering (recall)
-understanding (transfer)
Me: Of course, what constitutes new situations? What constitutes transfer? It is easy to differentiate between recall and application, but not so easy to determine the degree or distance of transfer? That assumes that there is some way to quantify or measure the elements of knowledge.
The level of cognitive activity determines level of meaningful learning.
Me: What about phsychomotor learning?
Activities that do not involve interaction do not support learning.
What makes an activity meaningful?
A lack of explanations and opportunities to question why may be one cause.
Does adding pictures to text-based instruction increase learning?
It can.
Example: Lightning lesson
- retention test: write down all you remember
- transfer tests:
- redisgn
- troubleshoot
- predict
Two versions (a) paper based, (b)computer based (with animation and voice over)
Text plus pictures was better than text alone. Text plus animation was better than text alone.
Redesign: How could you make it more effective?
Troubleshooting: If you did x, and it didn’t work, what might have gone wrong?
Explanation: Why does x?
Has also worked with instructional games and simulations
Assumptions of cognitive theory:
- Dual channels - humans have separate channels for processing visual and auditory information
- Limited capacity - William James - humans can only process so much information at one time
- Active processing - meaningful learning occurs when people are actively involved: (a) selecting/attending - paying attention, (b) organizing - into a coherent representation that makes sense to you, (c) integrating - relate the new information to your existing knowledge
How can you foster integration given that people have limited working memory?
What about tool use and using the environment as cues to remembering and solving?
Research questions:
Multimedia Effect
-Does adding a graphic (to text) help? - Text alone vs. together Yes: great improvement in transfer test (multimedia effect) - graphic voice over was better than text
Contiquity Effect
-What makes a good graphic? separated vs. contiguous A: Integrated with text works better - locate text close to relative portions of images
(spatial or temporal contiguity effect)
Coherence Effect
Sometimes it is better to present less information than more. Seductive details - interesting but not related information (does it motive them more and make them more interested)
-Adding those details has a big negative effect on people’s transfer ability
-Adding background music depresses
-Reading summaries produced more learning than reading whole lessons
-Extraneous information gets in the way of making connections
Modality Effect
-People do much better when the words are spoken rather than printed
-When you present them in textual form it overloads the visual system. Presenting them auditorily offloads the processing to the auditory system
-Graphics and narration and text results in less learning than just graphics and
Personalization effect - conversational results in more learning than formal presentation
Pacing effect -
Signaling effect
Individual differences - low knowledge learners need better
Theory and research based
Clark & Mayer (2003) E-learning and the science of instruction
Mayer (2003) Learning and instruction.
Analysis of graphics in CA text books. Over 50% of the space was devoted to graphics. About of the 85% of the graphics were not instructional
Barbara White - Learning Physics in a game environment - learned better when asked to reflect afterwards
Games
Design a plant - that will live on another planet (for a environment
Dr. Fizz - Electromagnet
-modality and interactivity effects observed
-Motivational? Does adding a game aspect to instruction help learners persist longer?
Progression of mental models
Me: What about the component fluency hypothesis? He agreed that some things need to be automated to free up cognitive resources for conceptual processing
Future research interests:
-games and simulations (because of how motivating they appear to be to children)
-individual differences - cognitive style (verbal, auditory)
-online pedagogical agents (because they are forecasted to be the guide on the side in the future)
-What kinds of questions do people ask a tutor (when learning SPSS)?
-What kinds of answers do tutors give?
-Theory of tutoring?
Pavio & Battely - dual channel effect
What would a theory based on cognitive principles be like for:
-Tool use?
-Tool use instruction?
-Tool design?
Posted on January 30th, 2004 by joel
Filed under: instructional design, research
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