The modality and redundancy effects in multimedia learning in children with dyslexia

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine the modality and redundancy effects in multimedia learning in children with dyslexia in order to find out whether their learning benefits from written and/or spoken text with pictures. We compared study time and knowledge gain in 26 11‐year‐old children with dyslexia and 38 typically reading peers in a within‐subjects design. All children were presented with a series of user‐paced multimedia lessons in 3 conditions: pictorial information presented with (a) written text, (b) audio, or (c) combined text and audio. We also examined whether children's learning outcomes were related to their working memory. With respect to study time, we found modality and reversed redundancy effects. Children with dyslexia spent more time learning in the text condition, compared with the audio condition and the combined text‐and‐audio condition. Regarding knowledge gain, no modality or redundancy effects were evidenced. Although the groups differed on working memory, it did not influence the modality or redundancy effect on study time or knowledge gain. In multimedia learning, it thus is more efficient to provide children with dyslexia with audio or with auditory support.

The effect of audio-support on strategy, time, and performance on reading comprehension in secondary school students with dyslexia

“…Results showed that audio-support has the potential to improve comprehension in students with decoding difficulties. Recent research in primary school children with dyslexia found no additional benefit of the use of audio-support on comprehension (Knoop-van Campen et al, 2018. Furthermore, in university students (with and without dyslexia), it was demonstrated that audio-support resulted in different reading behaviour (more focus on the supporting illustration and less on the written text) and, moreover, lead to lower comprehension (Knoop-van Campen et al, 2020).…”

Investigating multiple source use among students with and without dyslexia

“…Also, Henry, Castek, O'Byrne, and Zawilinski (2012) and Castek et al (2011) have suggested that support from images, videos, and audio files can benefit struggling readers learning in a multimedia environment. This suggestion was supported by Knoop-van Campen, Segers, and Verhoeven (2018), who studied the modality effect (the assumption that learning gain is larger when verbal input is presented auditorily than as text), and the redundancy effect, for children with dyslexia learning in a multimedia environment. These authors found that children with dyslexia spent more time learning in a text condition than in both audio and text-and-audio conditions.…”

Multimedia Learning: Contributions of Learners’ Verbal Abilities and Presentation Modalities

“…When students learning English as a second language were taught scientific concepts in an animated narration condition with subtitles or in an animated narration-only condition, students who received the multimedia instruction performed significantly better. Similarly, Knoop-van Campen, Segers, and Verhoeven (2018) found a reversed redundancy effect for children with dyslexia.…”