An investigation of modality, redundancy and signaling effects in multimedia learning with abstract and concrete representation

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the effects of modality, redundancy, and signaling principles in multimedia learning with abstract and concrete representations of an animation on learning in real middle school settings. Based on these principles of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, ten types of treatment conditions were tested. The study was conducted with a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design. Data were collected from 855 fifth and sixth graders with low prior electricity knowledge in four public middle schools. Each student, who are assigned to an experimental group with one type of intervention in each, took pre and post-test. Analyses showed that all treatments helped students to develop knowledge of the topic to some extent. However, while the modality effect holds true for middle school students’ studying electricity units with a multimedia instruction in real school settings, the signaling and redundancy principles do not hold true. Analysis also showed that there were no significant two-way or three-way interactions among prior science scores, prior knowledge about the topic, and multimedia treatments on students’ conceptual and procedural knowledge. However, while these three independent variables independently influenced learning of conceptual knowledge; only students’ prior science scores and prior knowledge about the topic independently influenced students’ learning procedural knowledge. The treatment did not significantly affect learning procedural knowledge.