Ch 7. Coherence Principle Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press. 2004/2/23 吳秋儀

Outline Introduction Coherence Principles  Student learning is hurt when 1. interesting but irrelevant words & pictures are added to a multimedia presentation. 2. interesting but irrelevant sounds & music are added to a multimedia presentation.  Student learning is improved when 3. unneeded words are eliminated from a multimedia presentation.

Introduction Coherence refers to the structural relations among elements in a message, such as a cause-and-effect chain. A coherence effect occurs when students better understand an explanation from multimedia lesson containing less material. Three variations of the theme in this research:  Adding interesting but irrelevant text or illustrations.  Adding interesting but extraneous sounds or music.  Removing nonessential words.

Coherence Principles 1. Student learning is hurt when interesting but irrelevant words & pictures are added. Student learning is hurt when interesting but irrelevant words & pictures are added. 2. Student learning is hurt when interesting but irrelevant sounds & music are added. Student learning is hurt when interesting but irrelevant sounds & music are added. 3. Student learning is improved when unneeded words are eliminated. Student learning is improved when unneeded words are eliminated.

The case for adding interesting words & pictures The inserted material has topical relevance but it lacks conceptual relevance.

The theory for adding interesting words & pictures Arousal theory – students learn better when they are emotionally aroused by the material. According to arousal theory, learners pay more attention and learn more overall. What’s wrong with arousal theory?  It’s based on an outmoded view of learning as information acquisition.

The theory against adding interesting words & pictures (1/2) Dewey (1913) argued against viewing interest as an ingredient that could be added to spice up boring lesson. Cognitive interest (Kintsch, 1980) – students enjoy lessons that they can understand.  cognition affects emotion.

The theory against adding interesting words & pictures (2/2) According to cognitive theory,  The presence of seductive details may direct the learner’s attention away from the relevant material.  The insertion of seductive details within the explanation may disrupt the learner’s ability to build a cause-and-effect chain.  The learners may assume that the theme of the passage comes from the seductive details.

Research 1: Coherence effects for retention Coherence effect for retention – students perform more poorly when seductive details are added. Elimination interesting but irrelevant materials from a lesson helps students to better remember the remaining material.

Research 1: Coherence effects for transfer Coherence effects for transfer because adding interesting but irrelevant material resulted in poorer problem-solving transfer performance. This research shows that less is more.

Related Research Seductive details do not enhance students’ remembering of the main ideas in the passage (Garner et al., 1989, 1992; Hidi & Baird, 1998; Mohr, Glover, & Ronning, 1984; Shirey, 1992; Shirey & Reynolds, 1988; Wade, 1992; Wade & Adams, 1990). Students tend to be able to remember the seductive details better than remember the central ideas in the passage (Garner et al., 1991, 1992; Hidi & Anderson, 1992; Hidi & Baird, 1986).

The case for adding interesting sounds & music Add a short instrumental music loop that plays continuously in the background. The music and sounds are gentle and do not interfere with the narration. Arousal theory  Music and sound can increase the learner’s level of emotional arousal. What’s wrong with this approach?  Adding music and sounds can interfere with sense-making process.

The case against adding interesting sounds & music When additional auditory information is presented, it competes with the narration for limited processing capacity in the auditory channel.

Research 2: Coherence effects for retention & transfer For retention For transfer

Related Research Research on children’s television examines how viewers’ attention can be guided through the use of audio features (Anderson & Lorch, 1983; Kozma, 1991). It does suggest that auditory features of a presentation may guide the learner’s attention toward specific content.

The case for retaining unneeded words Information delivery hypothesis  Students learn more when they receive information via more routes. It seems that students will learn more from a full presentation than from a summary.

The case against retaining unneeded words Cognitive theory  Learners actively make sense out of the presented material by selecting relevant information, organizing it into a coherent representation, and linking it with other knowledge. The summary greatly facilitates this process because the key words are in the captions, they are presented in order, and they are presented near the corresponding illustration.

Research 3: Coherence effects for retention & transfer Material  Eliminate the text passage and present learners with only the captioned illustrations. For retention For transfer

Related Research Earlier research:  College students remember more important material from reading chapter summaries than from reading entire textbook chapters (Reder & Anderson, 1980).

Implications for multimedia learning In the case of multimedia lessons, students tend to learn more when less is presented because  Learner are actively trying to make sense of the presented material by building a coherent metal representation.  Given the limits on working memory, cognitive resources must be diverted to process the irrelevant material.  When extraneous information is highly salient, learners may organize incoming material around the theme of the extraneous material.

Implications for multimedia design Avoid seemingly interesting words, pictures, and sounds that are not relevant to the lesson’s main conceptual message. Keep the presentation short and to the point. Needed elaboration should be presented after the learner has constructed a coherent mental representation of the basic cause- and-effect system.