The SSF Model: Structuring the Functions of the Sound Attribute

Journal of Research on Computing in Education

1995

Self Cite

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). (

Section: Contributing Factorssupporting

confidence: 84%

Focusing Attention with Temporal Sound

Journal of Research on Computing in Education

1995

Self Cite

“…It was anticipated that school‐age students, like their adult counterparts, would extract details from reading, and acoustically encode the gist from listening, as suggested in the literature on cognition (Hildyard & Olson, 1982; Brainerd & Reyna, 1990; Reyna, 1992). In this research, temporal speech cueing, from the Structured Sound Function (SSF) Model (Mann, 1992) was designated for empirical study with school‐age students. The SSF Model can account for the inter‐relatedness between spatial and language representations, as well as the differential pre‐dispositions of readers and listeners.…”

Section: Goals and Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the SSF Model, ‘temporal speech cueing’ is defined as spoken information provided about future or past events that present highlights or details about static or moving visuals (Mann, 1992; 1995a). In this research, the prediction was that school‐age students in the temporal speech cueing group would produce more creative solutions on problem solving questions than those in the temporal text cueing group.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of temporal speech and text cueing in educational multimedia

Computer Assisted Learning

Newhouse

Pagram

et al. 2002

This research focused on the prediction that children in their school setting would learn more from educational multimedia when critical information was presented as spoken instead of textual cues. Analyses of a study (n= 42) showed that 12‐year‐olds did not learn any more from temporal speech cueing than from temporal text cueing. The findings suggest that multimedia learning for children is a different kind of learning experience than for adults or older adolescents. The results indicate underdeveloped executive control of the referential connections in the children's working memory between reading screen text while listening to spoken cues, and between watching on‐screen animations play while listening to spoken cues. Further study is warranted. Implications may be derived for educational multimedia research in school settings.

“…The physical evidence of interaction with software is considered to be less important than the cognitive activities that the lesson is designed to engender (Jonassen, 1988;Winn, 1991). A richer understanding of the technology's attributes (eg, colour, sound, etc) is also required (Mann, 1992).…”

Section: Message Redundancymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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.…”

Section: The Ssf Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Innovations in Education and Training International

1997

This paper examines the research on design methods for shifting attention between visuals (for example, text, graphics or moving images) and auditory prompts (such as speech, music or effects) in multimedia environments. Stochastic design methods are most prevalent in the literature. Stochastic approaches reflect outdated bottleneck theories of human attention. Results using stochastic design methods have been mostly poor. Studies using the Structured Sound Function (SSF) model, however have shown good immediate results in student retention, and even better results following a latency period. The SSF model relies on the 'explicitness' and 'gist' requirements inherent in tasks and the interrelatedness of spatial and language representations. It is recommended that designs that incorporate gist and explicit requirements using the SSF model be applied developmentally, because as we get older we get better at extracting gist from sound than details from text.