We investigated how a picture fosters learning from text, both with self-paced presentation and with short presentation before text. In an experiment, participants (N = 114) learned about the structure and functioning of a pulley system in one of six conditions: text only, picture presentation for 150 milliseconds, 600 milliseconds, or 2 seconds, or self-paced before text, or self-paced concurrent presentation of text and picture. Presenting the picture for self-paced study time, both before and concurrently with text, fostered recall and comprehension and sped up text processing compared with presenting text only. Moreover, even inspecting the picture for only 600 milliseconds or 2 seconds improved comprehension and yielded faster reading of subsequent text about the spatial structure of the system compared with text only. These findings suggest that pictures, even if attended for a short time only, may yield a spatial mental scaffold that allows for the integration with verbal information, thereby fostering comprehension.
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.
KeywordsMultimedia learning . Working memory . Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning . Cognitive Load Theory . Dual-task methodology . Working memory capacity In the last two decades, a lot of educational research has focused on the beneficial effects of using multimedia for learning by referring to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer 2009) and/or the Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller et al. 1998). Both theories suggest that multimedia learning can be best explained by paying close attention to how information is processed and stored in the human mind. In particular, working memory is assumed to be crucial in multimedia learning, because all information needs to be processed
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