Multimedia Principle

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Chapter 4: Multimedia Principle
Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Keywords: Mayer, multimedia principle, transfer, retention, illustration, decorative, representational, organizational, explanative.
In this chapter Mayer describes more extensively the multimedia principle (Students learn better from words and pictures than from words alone P63). He gives the theoretical and the empirical rationale. He also presents, as in all of the principle he expounds, the effects for retention and for transfer. By means of the example of the pump, he explains the informational and qualitative character of words an pictures. He raises the difference conceptions of the multimedia principle according to the information delivery view and the cognitive theory. At the end of the chapter he mentions the implementations for Multimedia Design.
Useful quotes

• A lesson is a presentation that is intended to foster learning in a student. P64
• By pictures I mean any form of static or dynamic graphic; including photos, graphs, charts, illustrations, video, and animation. P64
• Argument for words-only presentations
• Word are the most common way of presenting information because verbal messages are efficient and easy to create. P66
• According to Information delivery: if a delivery route is fully or partially blocked, then multimedia presentations- that is, multiple deliveries, may result in more learning. P67
• The cognitive theory of multimedia learning is based on the idea that humans possess two qualitatively different channels for processing material ‘one for visually based representations and one for verbally based representations. P67
• Pictures allow holistic, nonlinear representations of information. P68
• Although the same material can be described in words and depicted in pictures, the resulting verbal and pictorial representations are not informationally equivalent. P67
• Although the verbal and pictorial representations may complement one another, they cannot be substituted for one another. P67
• The computer-based environment uses one instructional method, whereas the conventional classroom environment uses a different instructional method, so the differences may be attributable to instructional method rather than medium. Cf. P70
• Research on media effects is based on an information-delivery view of learning, in which media are delivery systems for carrying information from teacher to learner. By asking “which medium is more effective in delivering information?” media researchers adopt the information-delivery view of learning. P72
• …learners as active constructors of knowledge. P71
• an illustration can be decorative (interest or entertain), representational (portray), organizational (relations among elements; map or chart), explanative (how it works). Cf. P77
• In particular, the results support the idea that humans process pictures versus words using qualitatively different mental representations. P79
• A central premise is that meaningful learning occurs when learners build picture-based and word-based representations and build systematic connections between them. P79

Questions he asks

• Do you learn the same thing from reading the two sentences as from viewing the two frames of the illustration? P65
• Are words and pictures more effective than words alone? P69
• Are two presentational formats better than one? P72
• What kind of pictures should be added, how should they be added, and when should they be added? P80

Alberto Ramirez Martinell