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Test Sandbox for WikiWikiRoyWikiWikiRoy (talk) 18:37, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

Content provided in this section is completely irrelevant. It serves only to advance one person's understanding of how to create content on Wikipedia.WikiWikiRoy (talk) 18:37, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

=New Test Content Starts Here= Beginning with Cognitive Load Theory as their motivating scientific premise, researchers such as Richard E. Mayer, John Sweller, and Roxana Moreno have established within the scientific literature a set of multimedia instructional design principles that promote effective learning. Many of these principles have been "field tested" in active learning settings and found to be effective there as well. The majority of this body of research has been performed using university students given relatively short lessons on technical concepts with which they held low prior knowledge. However, some studies have shown that these principles may be effective with learners of other ages and with non-technical learning content. Research using learners who have greater prior knowledge in the lesson material sometimes finds results that contradict these design principles. This has lead some researchers to put forward the "expertise effect" as an instructional design principle unto itself.

Cognitive Load Theory describes the amount of mental effort that is related to performing a task as falling into one of three categories: germane, intrinsic, and extraneous. Germane cognitive load is the mental effort required to process the task's information, make sense of it, and access and/or store it in long-term memory (for example, seeing a math problem, identifying the values and operations involved, and understanding that your task is to solve the math problem). Intrinsic cognitive load is the mental effort required to perform the task itself (for example, actually solving the math problem). Extraneous cognitive load is the mental effort imposed by the way that the task is delivered, which may or may not be efficient (for example, finding the math problem you are supposed to solve on a page that also contains advertisements for books about math).

The multimedia instructional design principles identified by Mayer, Sweller, Moreno, and their colleagues are largely focused on minimizing extraneous cognitive load, and managing intrinsic and germane loads at levels that are appropriate for the learner. Examples of these principles in practice include
 * Reducing extraneous load by eliminating visual and auditory effects and elements that are not central to the lesson (the coherence principle)
 * Reducing germane load by delivering verbal information through audio presentation (narration) while delivering relevant visual information through static images or animations (the modality principle)
 * Controlling intrinsic load by breaking the lesson into smaller segments and giving learners control over the pace at which they move forward through the lesson material (the segmenting principle).

Theoretically, cognitive load theory (and by extension many of the the multimedia instructional design principles) is based in part on a model of working memory by Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch who proposed that working memory has two largely independent, limited capacity sub-components that tend to work in parallel - one visual and one verbal/acoustic. This gave rise to dual-coding theory, first proposed by Allan Paivio and later applied to multimedia learning by Richard Mayer. According to Mayer, separate channels of working memory process auditory and visual information during any lesson. Consequently, a learner can use more cognitive processing capacities to study materials that combine auditory verbal information with visual graphical information than to process materials that combine printed (visual) text with visual graphical information. In other words, the multi-modal materials reduce the cognitive load imposed on working memory.

In a series of studies Mayer and his colleagues tested Paivio’s dual-coding theory, with multimedia lesson materials. They repeatedly found that students given multimedia with animation and narration consistently did better on transfer questions than those who learn from animation and text-based materials. That is, they were significantly better when it came to applying what they had learned after receiving multimedia rather than mono-media (visual only) instruction. These results were then later confirmed by other groups of researchers.

The initial studies of multimedia learning were limited to logical scientific processes that centered on cause-and-effect systems like automobile braking systems, how a bicycle pump works, or cloud formation. However, subsequent investigations found that the modality effect extended to other areas of learning.

Empirically established principles

 * Multimedia principle: Deeper learning is observed when words and relevant graphics are both presented than when words are presented alone (also called the multimedia effect). Simply put, the three most common elements in multimedia presentations are relevant graphics, audio narration, and explanatory text. Combining any two of these three elements works better than using just one or all three.


 * Modality principle: Deeper learning occurs when graphics are explained by audio narration instead of onscreen text. Exceptions have be observed when learners are familiar with the content, are not native speakers of the narration language, or when only printed words appear on the screen. Generally speaking, audio narration leads to better learning than the same words presented as text on the screen. This is especially true for walking someone through graphics on the screen, and when the material to be learned is complex or the terminology being used is already understood by the student (otherwise see "pre-training"). One exception to this is when the learner will be using the information as a reference and will need to look back to it again and again.


 * Coherence principle: Avoid using unnecessary content (irrelevant video, graphics, music, stories, narration, etc.) in order to minimize cognitive load imposed on memory during learning by irrelevant and possibly distracting content. Basically, the less learners know about the lesson content, the easier it is for them to get distracted by anything shown that is not directly relevant to the lesson. For learners with greater prior knowledge, however, some motivational imagery may increase their interest and learning effectiveness just a bit.


 * Contiguity principle: Keep related pieces of information together. Deeper learning occurs when relevant text (for example, a label) is placed close to graphics or when spoken words and graphics are presented at the same time, or when feedback is presented next to the answer given by the learner.


 * Segmenting principle: Deeper learning occurs when content is broken into small chunks. Break down long lessons into several shorter lessons. Break down long text passages into multiple shorter ones.


 * Learner control principle:  Deeper learning occurs when learners can control the rate at which they move forward through segmented content. Learners tend to do best when the narration stops after a short, meaningful segment of content is given and the learner has to click a "continue" button in order to start the next segment. Some research suggests not overwhelming the learner with too many control options, however. Giving just pause and play buttons may work better than giving pause, play, fast forward, reverse buttons. Also, high prior-knowledge learners may learn better when the lesson moves forward automatically, but they have a pause button that allows them to stop when they choose to do so.


 * Personalization principle: Deeper learning in multimedia lessons occur when learners experience a heightened social presence, as when a conversational script or learning agents are used. The effect is best seen when the tone of voice is casual, informal, and in a 1st person ("I" or "we") or 2nd person ("you") voice. For example, of the following two sentences, the second version conveys more of a casual, informal, conversational tone:
 * A. The learner should have the sense that someone is talking directly to them when they hear the narration.
 * B. Your learner should feel like someone is talking directly to them when they hear your narration.
 * Also, research suggests that using a polite tone of voice ("You may want to try multiplying both sides of the equation by 10.") leads to deeper learning for low prior knowledge learners than does a less polite, more directive tone of voice ("Muliply both sides of the equation by 10."), but may impair deeper learning in high prior knowledge learners. Finally, adding pedagogical agents (computer characters) can help if used to reinforce important content. For example, have the character narrate the lesson, point out critical features in on-screen graphics, or visually demonstrate concepts to the learner.


 * Pre-training principle: Deeper learning occurs when lessons present key concepts or vocabulary prior to presenting the processes or procedures related to those concepts. According to Mayer, Mathias, and Wetzel, "Before presenting a multimedia explanation, make sure learners visually recognize each major component, can name each component, and can describe the major state changes of each component. In short, make sure learners build component models before presenting a cause-and-effect explanation of how a system works." However, others have noted that including pre-training content appears to be more important for low prior knowledge learners than for high prior knowledge learners.

Original Material
Richard E. Mayer's "modality principle" states that if materials contain both verbal and graphical information, the verbal information should be given in auditory format only, and not as written text as well.

Split attention effect Mayer found that "Students learn better from animation and narration than from animation, narration, and on-screen text."

Thus, it is better to eliminate redundant material. Learners do not learn as well when they both hear and see the same verbal message during a presentation. This is a special case of the split attention effect of Sweller and Chandler.

Learning is enhanced when related components such as words and pictures are presented in "spatial contiguity", referring to the components being physically close to each other on the page or screen, rather than being separated.[3] Similarly, "temporal contiguity" refers to simultaneous presentation of corresponding words and pictures, rather than successive delivery.[3] Learning is more effective when extraneous material is excluded rather than included, which Meyer termed, "coherence".[3] The effects of improved design have more benefit for low-knowledge than high knowledge learners, and for high-spatial than for low-spatial learners.[3]

Such principles may not apply outside of laboratory conditions. For example, Muller found that adding approximately 50% additional extraneous but interesting material did not result in any significant difference in learner performance.[6] There is ongoing debate concerning the mechanisms underlying these beneficial principles,[7] and on what boundary conditions may apply.[8]