Attention cueing in an instructional animation

In modern educational environments, dynamic visualizations such as animations are increasingly used for presenting change-related information. Due to their great appeal and acclaimed benefits to show dynamic processes in real-time, animations have quickly become one of the most popular instructional materials. However, much evidence indicates that animation-based instruction is frequently no more effective than learning from static graphics. Especially inexperienced learners may have difficulties or experience high processing demands when trying to understand animations that depict multiple changes. In such complex animations, the process of locating task-relevant information may require a high amount of ineffective working memory load, because highly salient but irrelevant elements need to be suppressed to avoid unnecessary visual searches. The aim of this dissertation was to investigate whether guiding learners’ attention to an animation’s relevant parts by cueing them would help learners to extract task-relevant information from an animation, use this information for further processing and hence promote learners’ understanding of the animation. Studies were conducted in which cued and uncued animations without textual explanations were compared, presentation speed of the animation was varied, and eye tracking methodology was applied to gain more insight into how and when cueing supports learning. Furthermore, the influence of cueing was investigated when the animation was studied with explanations, either provided to learners in a narration or generated by the learners themselves. One of the main outcomes of the studies is that cueing is necessary to guide learners’ attention to relevant parts of an animation without text but that it is insufficient to foster learning. On the other hand, active processing of the animation with explanations only leads to improved learning if the animation contains cues. So, the combination of cueing to improve the design of the animation and active processing to increase learners’ engagement with the animation is highly effective for promoting learning from an animation that shows multiple simultaneously occurring changes

Facilitating Understanding of Movements in Dynamic Visualizations: An Embodied Perspective

Learners studying mechanical or technical processes via dynamic visualizations often fail to build an accurate mental representation of the system's movements. Based on embodied theories of cognition assuming that action, perception, and cognition are closely intertwined, this paper proposes that the learning effectiveness of dynamic visualizations could be enhanced by grounding the movements of the presentation in people's own bodily experiences during learning. We discuss recent research on embodied cognition and provide specific strategies for how the body can be used to ground movements during the learning process: (1) making or observing gestures, (2) manipulating and interacting with objects, (3) using body metaphors, and (4) using eye movements as retrieval cues. Implications for the design of dynamic visualizations as well as directions for future research are presented

Do You Approach Positive Events or Do They Approach You? Linking Event Valence and Time Representations in a Dutch Sample

In order to think and talk about time, people often use the ego- or time-moving representation. In the ego-moving representation, the self travels through a temporal landscape, leaving past events behind and approaching future events; in the time-moving representation, the self is stationary and temporal events pass by. Several studies contest to the psychological ramifications of these two representations by, inter alia, demonstrating a link between them and event valence. These studies have, however, been limited to English speakers, even though language has been found to affect time representation. The present study therefore replicated Margolies and Crawford’s (2008) experiment on event valence and time representation amongst speakers of Dutch. Unlike Margolies and Crawford (2008), we do not find that positive valence leads to the endorsement of an ego-moving statement. Future studies will need to determine the ways through which language might moderate the relation between event valence and time representation

Effects of spatial distance on the effectiveness of mental and physical integration strategies in learning from split-attention examples

Learning from spatially separated text and pictures is improved when learners are instructed to use a physical or mental integration strategy. This study investigated whether varying the spatial distance between text and pictures affects the effectiveness of physical and mental integration strategies. We hypothesized that a larger spatial distance would increase cognitive load and harm learning. Ninety-two university students studied the functioning of an electrical circuit from text and pictures that were presented at a small or large spatial distance from each other, while using a physical or mental integration strategy during learning. Results indicated that participants using the mental integration strategy obtained higher recall scores than participants using the physical integration strategy, but no differences were found for comprehension, transfer, and cognitive load. No effects of spatial distance were found. More research is needed to investigate to what extent spatial distance influences learning with mental and physical integration strategies

Verbal redundancy in a procedural animation: On-screen labels improve retention but not behavioral performance

Multimedia learning research has shown that presenting the same words as spoken text and as written text to accompany graphical information hinders learning (i.e., redundancy effect). However, recent work showed that a “condensed” form of written text (i.e., on-screen labels) that overlaps with the spoken text, and thus is only partially redundant, can actually foster learning. This study extends this line of research by focusing on the usefulness of on-screen labels in an animation explaining a procedural task (i.e., first-aid procedure). The experiment had a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject design (N = 129) with the factors spoken text (yes vs. no), written text (yes vs. no), and on-screen labels (yes vs. no). Learning outcomes were measured as retention accuracy and behavioral performance accuracy. Results showed that on-screen labels improved retention accuracy (but not behavioral performance accuracy) of the procedure, especially when presented together with spoken text. So, on-screen labels appear to be promising for learning from procedural animations

Attention Cueing as a Means to Enhance Learning from an Animation

The question how animations should be designed so that learning is optimised, is still under discussion. Animations are often cognitively very demanding, resulting in decreased learning outcomes. In this study, we tried to prevent cognitive overload and foster learning by focusing the learners’ attention to one element (i.e. process) of an animation using a cueing technique. Psychology students viewed an animation of the cardiovascular system and were subsequently given a comprehension test and a transfer test. One group studied the animation without a visual cue, while for another group a visual cue was added to the animation. Results indicated that cueing not only enhanced comprehension and transfer performance for cued information, but also for uncued information. It is concluded that cueing can be used as a technique to improve learning from an animation. Results are interpreted in terms of cognitive load theory (CLT)

Research avenues supporting embodied cognition in learning and instruction

Research on embodied cognition acknowledges that cognitive processing is tightly coupled with bodily activities and the environment. An important implication for education is that learning can be enhanced when the brain, body, and environment mutually influence each other, such as when making or observing human actions, especially those involving hand gestures and manipulation of objects. In this narrative review article, we describe the evidence from six research avenues that can help explain why embodied cognition can enhance learning and instruction. Through the exploration of these six interconnected research pathways, we aim to make a significant contribution by proposing innovative directions for learning and instruction research, all rooted in the principles of embodied cognition. We establish a direct link between the six research pathways and embodied phenomena, both in the contexts of making and observing human movements. When making human movements, the research avenues explaining the learning benefits due to these movements are physical activity, generative learning, and offloaded cognition. When observing human movements, the avenues researching these phenomena are specialized processor and signaling. Lastly, the research avenue social cognition is integral to both making and observing human movements. With originality in focus, we also include research that has not been traditionally associated with embodied cognition or embodiment. This article offers comprehensive discussions, substantiated with evidence and influencing features, for each of these research avenues. We conclude by outlining the implications of these findings for instruction and charting potential directions for future investigation

Does the component processes task assess text-based inferences important for reading comprehension? A path analysis in primary school children

Using a component processes task (CPT) that differentiates between higher-level cognitive processes of reading comprehension provides important advantages over commonly used general reading comprehension assessments. The present study contributes to further development of the CPT by evaluating the relative contributions of its components (text memory, text inferencing, and knowledge integration) and working memory to general reading comprehension within a single study using path analyses. Participants were 173 third- and fourth-grade children. As hypothesized, knowledge integration was the only component of the CPT that directly contributed to reading comprehension, indicating that the text-inferencing component did not assess inferential processes related to reading comprehension. Working memory was a significant predictor of reading comprehension over and above the component processes. Future research should focus on finding ways to ensure that the text-inferencing component taps into processes important for reading comprehension

Size Does Matter: Implied Object Size is Mentally Simulated During Language Comprehension

Embodied theories of language comprehension propose that readers construct a mental simulation of described objects that contains perceptual characteristics of their real-world referents. The present study is the first to investigate directly whether implied object size is mentally simulated during sentence comprehension and to study the potential influence of developmental factors on mental simulation by comparing adults' and children's mental simulation processing. Participants performed a sentence-picture verification task in which they read a sentence that implied a large or a small size for an object and then saw a picture of the object that matched or mismatched the implied size. Responses to pictures were faster when implied size and pictured size matched, suggesting that readers activated perceptual information on object size during sentence comprehension. The magnitude of the match effect was equal across age groups. The results contribute to refining and advancing knowledge with respect to the nature of mental simulations

Gender differences in mental simulation during sentence and word processing

Text comprehension requires readers to mentally simulate the described situation by reactivating previously acquired sensory and motor information from (episodic) memory. Drawing upon research demonstrating gender differences, favouring girls, in tasks involving episodic memory retrieval, the present study explores whether gender differences exist in mental simulation in children (Grades 4 to 6). In Experiment 1, 99 children performed a sentence–picture verification task measuring mental simulation at sentence level. In Experiment 2, 97 children completed a lexical decision task in which imageability of words was manipulated to measure mental simulation at word level. Only for girls we found faster reaction times for matching versus mismatching sentence–picture pairs (Experiment 1) and high-imageability versus low-imageability words (Experiment 2). The results suggest that girls construct more coherent and vivid mental simulations than boys and rely more heavily on these representations. The results emphasize the importance of including gender into reading comprehension research