Summary of "Research-based principles for multimedia learning"
Summary of "Research-based principles for Multimedia Learning"
This presentation by Richard (Rich) Mayer, a leading educational psychologist, focuses on how Multimedia Learning—using words and pictures together—can be designed effectively based on cognitive science research. Mayer shares foundational theories, practical principles, and empirical evidence to guide instructional design that enhances meaningful learning and transfer of knowledge.
Main Ideas and Concepts
- Background and Importance of Research
- Rich Mayer is a highly influential figure in educational psychology with decades of research applying cognitive psychology principles to education.
- His research is theory-driven, relevant to real educational settings, and synergistic between theory and practice.
- The ultimate educational technology is the human mind; understanding its architecture is key to effective learning design.
- Definition of Multimedia Learning
- Learning from words (spoken or printed) and pictures (static like photos or dynamic like animations).
- The goal is to improve understanding and transfer of knowledge using multimedia.
- Historical Metaphors of Learning
- Response Strengthening: Learning as forming associations through rewards/punishments (early 20th century).
- Information Acquisition: Learning as adding information to memory, learners as passive recipients.
- Knowledge Construction: Learning as building mental representations, learners actively making sense of information (dominant modern view).
- Mayer focuses on knowledge construction, emphasizing active cognitive processing for transfer.
- Active Learning
- Not just physical activity but cognitive engagement (selecting, organizing, integrating information).
- Instructional design should promote these cognitive processes.
- Cognitive Science Foundations for Multimedia Learning
- Dual Channels: Separate processing channels for verbal and visual information.
- Limited Capacity: Working memory can hold only a few pieces of information at once.
- Active Processing: Deep learning requires selecting relevant information, organizing it coherently, and integrating it with prior knowledge.
- Instructional challenge: Prime these processes without overloading working memory.
- Information Processing Model
- Sensory input → Attention → Working memory (organizing verbal and pictorial models) → Integration with prior knowledge → Long-term memory.
- Effective Multimedia Learning supports this flow.
- Instructional Objectives and Learning Outcomes
- Clear objectives guide design.
- Types of knowledge targeted: factual, conceptual, procedural, strategic, and beliefs/attitudes.
- Learning evaluation: retention (remembering) and transfer (applying knowledge).
- Meaningful learning involves success in both retention and transfer.
- Types of Cognitive Processing in Learning
- Extraneous Processing: Irrelevant to learning goals, to be minimized.
- Essential Processing: Necessary to represent content mentally.
- Generative Processing: Going beyond content to make sense and relate to prior knowledge.
- Instruction aims to reduce extraneous, manage essential, and foster generative processing.
Research-Based Principles for Multimedia Instruction
Goal 1: Reduce Extraneous Processing
- Coherence Principle: Exclude irrelevant or distracting material (e.g., seductive details like unrelated pictures or facts).
- Signaling Principle: Highlight essential material through cues like headings, voice emphasis.
- Redundancy Principle: Avoid presenting the same information simultaneously in multiple forms (e.g., spoken narration + identical on-screen text).
- Spatial Contiguity Principle: Place words close to the corresponding parts of graphics rather than separated (e.g., captions near relevant images).
- Temporal Contiguity Principle: Present corresponding words and pictures simultaneously rather than sequentially.
Goal 2: Manage Essential Processing
- Segmenting Principle: Break complex material into learner-paced segments rather than continuous presentations.
- Pre-training Principle: Provide prior knowledge of key concepts and terminology before presenting complex systems.
- Modality Principle: Use spoken words rather than printed text when combined with graphics to reduce visual channel overload.
Goal 3: Foster Generative Processing
- Personalization Principle: Use conversational style (first/second person) instead of formal language to engage learners.
- Voice Principle: Use a human voice rather than a machine voice in narration to enhance social presence and learning.
Additional Insights and Applications
- Principles mostly apply to novice or low prior knowledge learners; high knowledge learners may require different approaches.
- Learners often do not make optimal choices about multimedia features (e.g., turning on both captions and narration), so guided design is preferable for beginners.
- Most research has been conducted in STEM fields but is believed to generalize with adaptation to other disciplines.
- Multimedia principles are relevant to various instructional formats including online courses, flipped classrooms, and video lectures.
- Real-world application involves trade-offs (e.g., time constraints, learner attention) and ongoing research is needed to explore long-term and broad disciplinary effects.
- Mayer emphasizes the importance of theory-driven, evidence-based instructional design grounded in cognitive science.
Methodology and Examples
Mayer presented controlled lab studies using narrated animations,
Category
Educational
