Chapter 7: Coherence Principle

Chapter 7: Coherence Principle
Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Keywords: Mayer, transfer, retention, extraneous words, seductive details, summary

This chapter is about the use impact of using extraneous material in learning units. The results of the transfer and retention tests are included and a reference to the use of summaries is as well quoted.
Useful Quotes

• Students learn better when extraneous material is excluded rather than included P113
• Extraneous material competes for cognitive resources in working memory and can divert attention. P113
• Garner and her colleagues coined the term seductive details to refer to interesting but relevant material that is added to a passage to spice it up( Garner, Brown, Sanders, And Menke, 1992). P117
• The major theoretical justification for adding seductive details is arousal theory –the idea that students learn better when they are emotionally aroused by the material. P117
• In spite of its commonsense approach, arousal theory is based on an outmoded view of learning information acquisition – the idea that learning involves taking information from the teacher and putting it in the learner. In contrast, the cognitive theory of multimedia learning is based on the view of learning as knowledge construction –the idea that learners actively build mental representations based on what is presented and what they already know. P118-119
• Elimination interesting but irrelevant material from a lesson helps students to better remember the remaining material. P120
• In general, previous research on seductive details documents that adding interesting text that is irrelevant to the theme of a passage either reduces or does not enhance students’ remembering of the main ideas in the passage. P123
• In addition, students tend to be able to remember the seductive details better than they can remember the central ideas in the passage ( Garner, 1992); Hidi & Anderson, 1992; Hidi & Baird, 1986). P123.
• One tempting technique for making a multimedia lesson more interesting is to add some bells and whistles in the form of background music or environmental sounds. P123
• The rationale for adding background music and sounds is based on arousal theory, similar to the rational for adding interesting words and pictures. P124
• On the basis of arousal theory, we can predict that adding interesting music and sounds will result in improved performance on tests of retention and transfer (…) According to this view, information is simply transferred from teachers to learners, and background music and sounds can speed up this delivery process. However, my approach in this book is based on the knowledge-construction view of learning –the idea that learners seek to actively build mental representations that make sense. P 124
• According to the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, learners process multimedia messages in their visual and auditory channels both of which are limited in capacity. P124
• On the basis of this theory, we can predict that adding interesting music and sounds to a multimedia presentation will result in poorer performance on tests of retention and transfer. P125
• At first blush, it seems obvious that students will learn more from a full presentation than from a summary. The theoretical rationale is straightforward: In the full version, the words describing the steps in lightning formatin are presented twice –within the captions. Two ways of delivering the words are better than one, so students should learn more in the full presentation than in the summary presentation. P129
• Less is more. P129
• The summary greatly facilities this process because the key words are in the captions, they are presented in order, and they are presented near the corresponding illustration. P 129
• Our findings are consistent with earlier research showing that college students remember more important material from reading chapter summaries than from reading entire textbook chapters (reader and Anderson, 1980)… Thus our research shows not only that students remember more of the important material when it is presented as summary but that they also better understand the material. P132.

Questions

• What can you do to improve on this lesson (about lightning) so that students will remember more of the important information and be able to use it to solve problems? P116
• Does adding interesting but irrelevant words and/or pictures to a multimedia explanation affect student learning? P119

My question

• Do slide and video go together?
• Layout and content principles

Further reading

• Reder, L.M., Anderson, J. R. (1980). A comparison of texts and their summaries Memorial consequences. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 121-134.

Alberto Ramirez Martinell