Redundancy Principle Chapter 6 What is the Redundancy

Redundancy Principle Chapter 6

What is the Redundancy Principle? • People learn better from: • graphics and narration • People do not learn as well from: • graphics, narration and printed text • The redundancy principle described in this chapter involves a specific situation in which the narration and the on-screen text are identical.

How to improve Concise Narrated Animations • A common sense approach would be to add text to the screen that corresponds the words being spoken. • Each sentence on the screen at the same time that the corresponding words are spoken. Spoiler Alert: This will decrease the effectiveness of the multimedia presentation.

Rational for Simultaneous Onscreen Text Learning Preference Hypothesis

What is Learning Preference Hypothesis • People have preferred ways of learning. Presenting as many different formats as possible addresses multiple learning styles. • When customized lessons are not possible, presenting all methods at once is the alternative. • Instructor’s job is to transmit the information • Student’s job is to receive the information

Learning Preferences Hypothesis Instructor’s job is to transmit information Student’s job is to receive information

Rational against Simultaneous Onscreen Text Capacity Limitation Hypothesis

What is Capacity Limitation Hypothesis • People have a limited capacity for processing visual and auditory material. • Learner actively builds mental representation of information

Capacity Limitation Hypothesis Learners actively build mental representations

Don’t Overload the Channels

Better Delivery to Audio and Visual Channel

Meaningful Learning Occurs When • Incoming visual and auditory information do not compete • The material is organized in coherent verbal and pictorial representations • People can integrate the two representations

Meaningful Learning May Not Occur: • If the channels are overloaded and learner cannot process the knowledge and construct meaning • On-screen text identical to narration is added at the same time.

Studies Testing Transfer Performance • Secondary students learning to solve geometry problems • Non redundant group outperformed redundant group • Elementary students learning to use temperature graph • Non redundant group outperformed redundant group • College students learning how human memory works • Non redundant group outperformed redundant group • Trainees learning an engineering topic • Non redundant group outperformed redundant group

Diminish the Effects of the Redundancy Principle • Captions are short and placed next to the part of the graphic they describe • Spoken text is not concurrent to the written text • Graphics are omitted and verbal sections are short

Ignore the Redundancy Principle? • When the learners are non-native speakers • When the text passages are long and complex • When the presentation is slow-paced • When the presentation is under learner control

Take Away • People learn more deeply from narration and graphics than from narration, text and graphics. • Adding redundant on-screen text to the narrated detracts from learning • The principles are not universal rules but should be applied in ways that are consistent to how human-processing system works.