The instructive animation: Helping students build connections between words and pictures in multimedia learning.

Abstract

In 2 experiments, students studied an animation depicting the operation of a bicycle tire pump or an automobile braking system, along with concurrent oral narration of the steps in the process (concurrent group), successive presentation of animation and narration (by 4 different methods), animation alone, narration alone, or no instruction (control group). On retention tests, the control group performed more poorly than each of the other groups, which did not differ from one another. On problem-solving tests, the concurrent group performed better than each of the other groups, which did not differ from one another. These results are consistent with a dual-coding model in which retention requires the construction of representational connections and problem solving requires the construction of representational and referential connections. An instructional implication is that pictures and words are most effective when they occur contig-uously in time or space. Imagine an electronic encyclopedia in which a user sits in front of a screen and keyboard. The user simply types in a term (or selects it from a list), such as pump. Then a multi-media presentation begins, involving stereo sound and high-resolution color graphics, with which the user interacts. In this context, words are presented orally and animations are presented visually. The technology for implementing this scenario exists today