Unique contributions of eye-tracking research to the study of learning with graphics

Richard E. Mayer

Learning and Instruction Vol. 20, No. 2 (April 2010) pp. 167–171

The author examines the empirical, methodological, theoretical, and practical contributions of the six studies in this special issue on eye tracking as a tool to study and enhance multimedia learning. The design of learning environments involving...

Language: English

Topics: Graphics

Towards a Science of Motivated Learning in Technology-Supported Environments

Richard E. Mayer

Educational Technology Research and Development Vol. 59, No. 2 (April 2011) pp. 301–308

This commentary reviews seven papers that study motivation with new media, contained in this special issue of "Educational Technology Research & Development" edited by Ruth Small. For each paper, this commentary summarizes exemplary contributions,...

Cognitive, Metacognitive, and Motivational Aspects of Problem Solving

Richard E. Mayer

Instructional Science: An International Journal of the Learning Sciences Vol. 26, No. 1 (1998) pp. 49–63

Examines the role of cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational skills in problem solving. Cognitive skills include instructional objectives, components in a learning hierarchy, and information-processing components. Metacognitive skills include...

Applying the Science of Learning: Evidence-Based Principles for the Design of Multimedia Instruction

Richard E. Mayer

American Psychologist Vol. 63, No. 8 (November 2008) pp. 760–769

During the last 100 years, a major accomplishment of psychology has been the development of a science of learning aimed at understanding how people learn. In attempting to apply the science of learning, a central challenge of psychology and...

The promise of multimedia learning: using the same instructional design methods across different media

Richard E. Mayer

Learning and Instruction Vol. 13, No. 2 (2003) pp. 125–139

Multimedia learning occurs when students build mental representations from words and pictures that are presented to them (e.g., printed text and illustrations or narration and animation). The promise of multimedia learning is that students can learn ...

Language: English

Topics: Instructional Design, Multimedia

Multimedia aids to problem-solving transfer

Richard E Mayer

International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 31, No. 7 (1999) pp. 611–623

How can students be helped to understand scientific explanations of cause-and-effect systems, such as how a pump works, how the human respiratory system works, or how lightning storms develop? This chapter reviews some encouraging evidence that...

Language: English

Elements of a Science of E-Learning

Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Computing Research Vol. 29, No. 3 (2003) pp. 297–313

A "science of e-learning" involves the scientific investigation of how people learn in electronic learning environments. Three elements of a science of e-learning are: a) "evidence"--a base of replicated findings from rigorous and appropriate...

Out-of-School Learning: The Case of an After-School Computer Club

Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Computing Research Vol. 16, No. 4 (1997) pp. 333–36

Gives an introduction to three articles addressing the potential value of a network of after-school computer clubs called the Fifth Dimension. The articles demonstrate improvements in computer literacy (near transfer), ability to understand...

Merlin C. Wittrock's Enduring Contributions to the Science of Learning

Richard E. Mayer

Educational Psychologist Vol. 45, No. 1 (2010) pp. 46–50

Among his many accomplishments in educational psychology, Merlin C. Wittrock is perhaps best remembered for his enduring contributions to the science of learning. His vision of how learning works is best explicated in articles published in ...

Incorporating motivation into multimedia learning

Richard E. Mayer

Learning and Instruction Vol. 29, No. 1 (February 2014) pp. 171–173

What is the role of motivation in multimedia learning? Cognitive theories of multimedia learning tend to focus on instructional methods aimed at reducing extraneous processing (such as highlighting the essential material) or managing essential...

Language: English

A Generative Theory of Textbook Design: Using Annotated Illustrations To Foster Meaningful Learning of Science Text

Richard E. Mayer

Educational Technology Research and Development Vol. 43, No. 1 (1995) pp. 31–43

Explains a generative theory of textbook design and describes three experiments that compared college students' solutions on transfer problems after reading science texts with illustrations adjacent to corresponding text and including annotations,...

Verbal Redundancy in Multimedia Learning: When Reading Helps Listening

Roxana Moreno; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 94, No. 1 (2002) pp. 156–63

Three studies investigated whether and under what conditions the addition of on-screen text would facilitate the learning of a narrated scientific multimedia explanation. The overall pattern of results can be explained by a dual-processing model of...

Benefits of emotional design in multimedia instruction

Richard E. Mayer; Gabriel Estrella

Learning and Instruction Vol. 33, No. 1 (October 2014) pp. 12–18

Emotional design of multimedia instruction involves making the essential elements in the lesson's graphics more appealing, such as by rendering them with human-like features and with distinct, appealing colors (Um, Plass, Hayward, & Homer, 2012)....

Language: English

Multimedia-Supported Metaphors for Meaning Making in Mathematics

Roxana Moreno; Richard E. Mayer

Cognition and Instruction Vol. 17, No. 3 (1999) pp. 215–48

Two experiments examined the use of a number-line metaphor presented with interactive multimedia to help sixth graders with varying levels of mathematics achievement or spatial ability build connections between addition and subtraction of signed...

Learning Science in Virtual Reality Multimedia Environments: Role of Methods and Media

Roxana Moreno; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 94, No. 3 (2002) pp. 598–610

College students learned about botany through an agent-based multimedia game. Students received either spoken or identical on-screen text explanations. Results reveal that students scored higher on retention, transfer, and program ratings in...

Aids to computer-based multimedia learning

Richard E. Mayer; Roxana Moreno

Learning and Instruction Vol. 12, No. 1 (2002) pp. 107–119

Computer-based multimedia learning environments — consisting of pictures (such as animation) and words (such as narration) — offer a potentially powerful venue for improving student understanding. How can we use words and pictures to help people...

Language: English

Effects of Observing the Instructor Draw Diagrams on Learning from Multimedia Messages

Logan Fiorella; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 108, No. 4 (2016) pp. 528–546

In 4 experiments, participants viewed a short video-based lesson about how the Doppler effect works. Some students viewed already-drawn diagrams while listening to a concurrent oral explanation, whereas other students listened to the same...

A Coherence Effect in Multimedia Learning: The Case for Minimizing Irrelevant Sounds in the Design of Multimedia Instructional Messages

Roxana Moreno; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 92, No. 1 (2000) pp. 117–25

Discusses two studies that explored whether adding music and/or sounds to multimedia instructional messages would improve the quality of college students' retention and transfer. Groups receiving both music and sounds performed worse than groups...

Engaging Students in Active Learning: The Case for Personalized Multimedia Messages

Roxana Moreno; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 92, No. 4 (2000) pp. 724–33

Tests the hypothesis that personalized messages in a multimedia science lesson can promote deep learning by actively engaging students in the elaboration of the materials and reducing processing load. Instructional messages were presented in either...

An Imagination Effect in Learning from Scientific Text

Claudia Leopold; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 107, No. 1 (February 2015) pp. 47–63

Asking students to imagine the spatial arrangement of the elements in a scientific text constitutes a learning strategy intended to foster deep processing of the instructional material. Two experiments investigated the effects of mental imagery...

Students' beliefs about mobile devices Vs. desktop computers in South Korea and the United States

Eunmo Sung; Richard E. Mayer

Computers & Education Vol. 59, No. 4 (December 2012) pp. 1328–1338

College students in the United States and in South Korea completed a 28-item multidimensional scaling (MDS) questionnaire in which they rated the similarity of 28 pairs of multimedia learning materials on a 10-point scale (e.g., narrated animation...

Language: English

Personalized Messages That Promote Science Learning in Virtual Environments

Roxana Moreno; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 96, No. 1 (March 2004) pp. 165–173

College students learned how to design the roots, stem, and leaves of plants to survive in five different virtual reality environments through an agent-based multimedia educational game. For each student, the agent used personalized speech (e.g.,...

When Learning Is Just a Click Away: Does Simple User Interaction Foster Deeper Understanding of Multimedia Messages?

Richard E. Mayer; Paul Chandler

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 93, No. 2 (2001) pp. 390–97

In two experiments, students received two presentations of a narrated animation explaining how lightning forms, followed by retention and transfer tests. The goal was to determine possible benefits of incorporating a modest amount of computer-user...

A Split-Attention Effect in Multimedia Learning: Evidence for Dual Processing Systems in Working Memory

Richard E. Mayer; Roxana Moreno

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 90, No. 2 (1998) pp. 312–20

Multimedia learners (n=146 college students) were able to integrate words and computer-presented pictures more easily when the words were presented aurally rather than visually. This split-attention effect is consistent with a dual-processing model...

The Case for Coherence in Scientific Explanations: Quantitative Details Can Hurt Qualitative Understanding

Richard E. Mayer; Joshua Jackson

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied Vol. 11, No. 1 (March 2005) pp. 13–18

In Experiments 1A and 1B, students read a concise booklet containing 653 words and 6 illustrations describing the formation, propagation, and dispersion of ocean waves (concise group) or an expanded booklet containing 327 additional words and 5...

Paper-Based Aids for Learning with a Computer-Based Game

Logan Fiorella; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 104, No. 4 (November 2012) pp. 1074–1082

The purpose of this study was to test the instructional value of adding paper-based metacognitive prompting features to a gamelike environment for learning about electrical circuits, called the Circuit Game. In Experiment 1, students who were...

Learning Science in Immersive Virtual Reality

Jocelyn Parong; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 110, No. 6 (2018) pp. 785–797

The goals of the study were (a) to compare the instructional effectiveness of immersive virtual reality (VR) versus a desktop slideshow as media for teaching scientific knowledge, and (b) to examine the efficacy of adding a generative learning...

The Instructive Animation: Helping Students Build Connections between Words and Pictures in Multimedia Learning

Richard E. Mayer; Richard B. Anderson

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 84, No. 4 (1992) pp. 444–52

In 2 experiments, 280 college students studied animations depicting a mechanical operation with concurrent oral narration of the process, successive animation and narration, animation alone, narration alone, or no instruction (the control group)....

A Comparison of Three Measures of Cognitive Load: Evidence for Separable Measures of Intrinsic, Extraneous, and Germane Load

Krista E. DeLeeuw; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 100, No. 1 (February 2008) pp. 223–234

Understanding how to measure cognitive load is a fundamental challenge for cognitive load theory. In 2 experiments, 155 college students (ages = 17 to 22; 49 men and 106 women) with low domain knowledge learned from a multimedia lesson on electric...

When Static Media Promote Active Learning: Annotated Illustrations Versus Narrated Animations in Multimedia Instruction

Richard E. Mayer; Mary Hegarty; Sarah Mayer; Julie Campbell

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 2005) pp. 256–265

In 4 experiments, students received a lesson consisting of computer-based animation and narration or a lesson consisting of paper-based static diagrams and text. The lessons used the same words and graphics in the paper-based and computer-based...

Multimedia Learning in an Interactive Self-Explaining Environment: What Works in the Design of Agent-Based Microworlds?

Richard E. Mayer; Gayle T. Dow; Sarah Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 95, No. 4 (2003) pp. 806–12

Students learned about electric motors by asking questions and receiving answers from an on-screen pedagogical agent named Dr. Phyz who stood next to an on-screen drawing of an electric motor. Results are consistent with a cognitive theory of...

For Whom Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Extensions of a Dual-Coding Theory of Multimedia Learning

Richard E. Mayer; Valerie K. Sims

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 86, No. 3 (1994) pp. 389–401

In 2 experiments, 162 high- and low-spatial ability students viewed a computer-generated animation and heard a concurrent or successive explanation. The concurrent group generated more creative solutions to transfer problems and demonstrated a...

Using audiovisual TV interviews to create visible authors that reduce the learning gap between native and non-native language speakers

Terry Inglese; Richard E. Mayer; Francesca Rigotti

Learning and Instruction Vol. 17, No. 1 pp. 67–77

Can archives of audiovisual TV interviews be used to make authors more visible to students, and thereby reduce the learning gap between native and non-native language speakers in college classes? We examined students in a college course who learned...

Language: English

Using structural theory to make a word-processing manual more understandable

Stefan Hagmann; Richard E. Mayer; Peter Nenniger

Learning and Instruction Vol. 8, No. 1 pp. 19–35

We used Mayer's (1979, 1985) transactional theory of computer programming languages to modify a word-processing manual, that is, we added visual and verbal descriptions of what happened inside the computer for each of 12 commands. In our study,...

Language: English

Adding Instructional Features that Promote Learning in a Game-Like Environment

Richard E. Mayer; Cheryl I. Johnson

Journal of Educational Computing Research Vol. 42, No. 3 (2010) pp. 241–265

Students learned about electrical circuits in an arcade-type game consisting of 10 levels. For example, in one level students saw two circuits consisting of various batteries and resistors connected in series or parallel, and had to indicate which...

Signaling as a Cognitive Guide in Multimedia Learning

Patricia D. Mautone; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 93, No. 2 (2001) pp. 377–89

In three experiments, students received a short science lesson on how airplanes achieve lift and then were asked to write an explanation (retention test) and solutions to five problems (transfer test). For some students, the lesson contained signals ...

Revising the Redundancy Principle in Multimedia Learning

Richard E. Mayer; Cheryl I. Johnson

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 100, No. 2 (May 2008) pp. 380–386

College students viewed a short multimedia PowerPoint presentation consisting of 16 narrated slides explaining lightning formation (Experiment 1) or 8 narrated slides explaining how a car's braking system works (Experiment 2). Each slide appeared...

Pictorial Aids for Learning by Doing in a Multimedia Geology Simulation Game

Richard E. Mayer; Patricia Mautone; William Prothero

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 94, No. 1 (2002) pp. 171–85

The task was to survey an area of a planet's surface to identify the presence of various geological features such as a trench, ridge, or basin. Students who received prior pictorial representations of features performed more accurately than students ...

Cognitive Constraints on Multimedia Learning: When Presenting More Material Results in Less Understanding

Richard E. Mayer; Julie Heiser; Steve Lonn

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 93, No. 1 (2001) pp. 187–98

Presents research on and discusses the redundancy effect, consistent with a dual-channel theory of multimedia learning in which adding on-screen text can overload the visual information-processing channel, causing learners to split their visual...

Testing the ATI Hypothesis: Should Multimedia Instruction Accommodate Verbalizer-Visualizer Cognitive Style?

Laura J. Massa; Richard E. Mayer

Learning and Individual Differences Vol. 16, No. 4 (2006) pp. 321–335

College students (Experiment 1) and non-college adults (Experiment 2) studied a computer-based 31-frame lesson on electronics that offered help-screens containing text (text group) or illustrations (pictorial group), and then took a learning test....

A Testing Effect with Multimedia Learning

Cheryl I. Johnson; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 101, No. 3 (August 2009) pp. 621–629

A testing effect occurs when a learner performs better on a retention test after studying the material and taking a practice-retention test than after studying the material twice. In the present study, 282 participants watched a narrated animation...

An Eye Movement Analysis of the Spatial Contiguity Effect in Multimedia Learning

Cheryl I. Johnson; Richard E. Mayer

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied Vol. 18, No. 2 (June 2012) pp. 178–191

In three studies, eye movements of participants were recorded while they viewed a single-slide multimedia presentation about how car brakes work. Some of the participants saw an integrated presentation in which each segment of words was presented...

Knowledge and Processes That Predict Proficiency in Digital Literacy

Monica E. Bulger; Richard E. Mayer; Miriam J. Metzger

Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal Vol. 27, No. 9 (October 2014) pp. 1567–1583

Proficiency in digital literacy refers to the ability to read and write using online sources, and includes the ability to select sources relevant to the task, synthesize information into a coherent message, and communicate the message with an...

Topics: Computers, Literacy

Polite web-based intelligent tutors: Can they improve learning in classrooms?

Bruce M. McLaren; Krista E. DeLeeuw; Richard E. Mayer

Computers & Education Vol. 56, No. 3 (April 2011) pp. 574–584

Should an intelligent software tutor be polite, in an effort to motivate and cajole students to learn, or should it use more direct language? If it should be polite, under what conditions? In a series of studies in different contexts (e.g., lab...

Language: English

Applying the Segmenting Principle to Online Geography Slideshow Lessons

Richard E. Mayer; Jeffrey T. Howarth; Michelle Kaplan; Sara Hanna

Educational Technology Research and Development Vol. 66, No. 3 (2018) pp. 563–577

Multimedia design principles were applied to an online geography slideshow on geographic information systems (GIS) intended for college students taking an introductory course. In a 2 (segment vs. non-segmented) × 2 (redundant vs. non-redundant)...

Computer-Supported Aids to Making Sense of Scientific Articles: Cognitive, Motivational, and Attitudinal Effects

Julie A. Gegner; Donald H. J. Mackay; Richard E. Mayer

Educational Technology Research and Development Vol. 57, No. 1 (February 2009) pp. 79–97

High school students can access original scientific research articles on the Internet, but may have trouble understanding them. To address this problem of online literacy, the authors developed a computer-based prototype for guiding students'...

Adding immersive virtual reality to a science lab simulation causes more presence but less learning

Guido Makransky; Thomas S. Terkildsen; Richard E. Mayer

Learning and Instruction Vol. 60, No. 1 (April 2019) pp. 225–236

Virtual reality (VR) is predicted to create a paradigm shift in education and training, but there is little empirical evidence of its educational value. The main objectives of this study were to determine the consequences of adding immersive VR to...

Language: English

A Personalization Effect in Multimedia Learning: Students Learn Better When Words Are in Conversational Style Rather Than Formal Style

Richard E. Mayer; Sherry Fennell; Lindsay Farmer; Julie Campbell

Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 96, No. 2 (June 2004) pp. 389–395

Students received a personalized or nonpersonalized version of a narrated animation explaining how the human respiratory system works. The narration for the nonpersonalized version was in formal style, whereas the narration for the personalized...

A Computer-Based Spatial Learning Strategy Approach That Improves Reading Comprehension and Writing

Hector R. Ponce; Richard E. Mayer; Mario J. Lopez

Educational Technology Research and Development Vol. 61, No. 5 (October 2013) pp. 819–840

This article explores the effectiveness of a computer-based spatial learning strategy approach for improving reading comprehension and writing. In reading comprehension, students received scaffolded practice in translating passages into graphic...

Instructional effectiveness of a computer-supported program for teaching reading comprehension strategies

Héctor R. Ponce; Mario J. López; Richard E. Mayer

Computers & Education Vol. 59, No. 4 (December 2012) pp. 1170–1183

This article examines the effectiveness of a computer-based instructional program (e-PELS) aimed at direct instruction in a collection of reading comprehension strategies. In e-PELS, students learn to highlight and outline expository passages based...

Language: English