Focusing Attention with Temporal Sound

Abstract

This research addressed the problem of students' inattention to critical information from ti:Je computer interface by focusing on software solutions using sound. Current interest in constructivism, hypermedia authoring, and verbal-information learning suggested endorseme'1t of these areas as the experimental platform. Temporal sound was designated for empirical study. Temporal sound is spoken information provided about future and past events that prese.'lt highlights and details about static or moving visuals. The purpose of the study was to determine how temporal sound affected the students' attention to critical information. Twelve postseconda;J! students were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: sound, sound/text, or text. Between-subjects designs using small groups are not uncommon in educational computir:.g research. A protocol ana[ysis of their verbal reports revealed that temporal sound helped the:se subjects attend to screen information by affecting their constructive ability. Whereas text ar:.d sound/text subjects concentrated on one model through to the summary before beginning on the next model, sound subjects compared models before attempting the summaries. Subjects in the sound/text treatment summarized more highlights and details than those in the sound or text treatments. These findings confirmed previous research that reported that listeners tend w process information largely at the level of meaning (or highlights) rather than at the word level (or details). (

Increasing Associative Learning of Abstract Concepts through Audiovisual Redundancy

“…Hence, students in the static graphic group are more likely to engage in the powerful organizational properties of an image system [8,14]. Animation might direct a learner's attention, but learners might not be able to perceive the meaning or attend to the details of the display without proper guidance [2,18,31]. Subjects given animated presentation alone might concentrate on irrelevant visual features thus hindering association of the analogy provided [10].…”

“…With the rapid progress of computer audiovisual techniques, it has become an important concern whether the use of audio, visual, or the combination of both channels can actually facilitate the process of computer-based learning [1,2]. Previous research found that for learning abstract concepts, static graphics provides more chances to build connections between the concrete and abstract domains [3].…”

Shifting Attention in Multimedia: Stochastic Roles, Design Principles and the SSF Model

“…Unlike the stochastic roles for sound, Downloaded by [University of Kent] at 10:51 04 December 2014 the SSF model is derived from design principles, discussed later in the paper. The origins and applications of the SSF model are explained in Mann (1992Mann ( , 1995aMann ( , 1995bMann ( , 1996.…”

A comparison of temporal speech and text cueing in educational multimedia

“…Previous research has shown that adults and older adolescents (i.e. apprentices, college and university students) learn better from educational multimedia when critical information is presented in speech rather than on‐screen text (Chandler & Sweller, 1992; Mann, 1995a; Mann, 1997a; Mayer, 1997; Moreno & Mayer, 2000). A study with 78 college students (Mayer & Moreno, 1998) reported enhanced learning when the instructional material did not require them to split their attention between multiple sources of mutually referring information.…”