The role of animation in the comprehension of visually illustrated instructional messages

Abstract

Contradictory results are reported regarding the value of external representations such as dynamic and static visuals in a learning environment (Lowe 1999; Hanzen, Narayanan & Hegarty 2002; Weiss, Knowlton and Morrison 2002; Bodemar, Ploetzner, Feuerlein & Spada 2004; Bodemar & Ploetzner 2004; Moreno & Valdez 2005; Höffler & Loetner 2007). Some of the recent findings indicate little or no significant differences between static and dynamic visuals. This study looks at studies that used a variety of external representations to facilitate different learning tasks. A ―two journal article‖ format was adopted for Chapter 2 and 3 respectively. The first article, i.e. Chapter 2, is a review of the literature and provides a theoretical background to the research topic. Chapter 2 reviews theories and empirical studies regarding learning with text, dynamic and static visuals, and examines the conditions under which external representations facilitate learning. Subjects‘ prior knowledge, the content of the instructional material and the testing method are but some of the variables that can determine if graphic medium can increase a subject‘s comprehension and if such comprehension can be accurately measured. Chapter 2 also presents a model that suggests how dynamic and static visuals can be used in a learning environment. The second article, i.e. Chapter 3, presents an animation for a specific learning task in order to test the hypothesis that this external representation may improve the comprehension of a linear scientific process. Tertiary students (N = 61) participated in a pre-test and post-test experimental study during which they were exposed to 4 treatment variables: text (T), video and text (VT), illustration and text (IT), and animation and text (AT). It was hypothesised that the group who received the animation and text treatment would comprehend the linear process better than the control group (text only) and the other two groups (text and illustration; text and video). The question that was asked to explore this comparison therefore was: Can animation be used to improve comprehension of instructional text? The results indicate that no significant differences in achievement existed among the treatment groups. The results of the study show that dynamic visuals with text can have essentially the same effect on students' understanding of a particular process as static visual with text. It is further acknowledged that the subjects‘ prior knowledge, the content of the instructional material and the testing method are but some of the variables that can determine if an external representation can increase a subject‘s comprehension and if such comprehension can be accurately measured.