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

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

doi:10.1037/0022-0663.96.2.389

Cited by 208 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The theoretical rationale is that personalization techniques-such as using conversational style or polite wording-creates a sense of social partnership with the narrator in which learners try harder to make sense of what their conversational partner is saying. In 11 of 11 experiments, involving computer-based lessons on lungs, lightning, botany, and industrial engineering, learners who received words in conversational style performed better on transfer tests than did learners who received words in formal style (Mayer, Fennell, Farmer, & Campbell, 2004, Experiments 1, 2, and 3; Moreno & Mayer, 2000b, Experiments 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5;Moreno & Mayer, 2004, Experiments 1a and 1b;Wang et al, 2008). The median effect size was 1.11, which is a large effect.…”

Section: Two Principles For Fostering Generative Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction.

Mayer

2008

American Psychologist

Self Cite

663

601

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Suppose you want to design (or select) (a) a computerbased training program to teach employees how to use a new database program, (b) a biology textbook for high school students, (c) an instructional video game aimed at promoting healthy eating, or even (d) a PowerPoint presentation on a topic in educational psychology. Each of these is an example of what I call a multimedia instructional message-a lesson containing words (e.g., printed words or spoken words) and pictures (e,g., illustrations, photos, animation, or video) that is intended to foster learning. How would you decide the best way to present your multimedia instruction? To help answer this question, you need some way of judging whether a proposed instructional method is consistent with research-based theories of how people learn (i.e., the science of learning) and evidence-based principles of how to design instruction (i.e., the science of instruction).Let's consider three approaches to the relation between theory and practice (Mayer, 1992). In the one-way street approach, psychologists develop a theory of how people learn that is based on research, and educators apply the theory in their lessons. The problem with the one-way street approach is that a clear specification of how people learn does not automatically yield a clear specification of effective instructional methods and materials. In the dead end street approach, psychologists busy themselves in building a theory of learning that is not closely related to authentic educational challenges-such as studying how laboratory animals run mazes or how adults memorize word lists-while educators seek research that determines the best method of instruction without regard to how or why it works. Finally, in the two-way street approach, there is a reciprocal relation between learning theory and educational practice in which the science of learning must be expanded to be able to explain how learning works in authentic learning situations, and the science of instruction must be expanded to consider the conditions for each instructional principle based on an understanding of how the human mind works. Figure 1 summarizes the relation between basic research-which has been attributed to the science of learning (SOL)-and applied research--which has been attributed to the science of instruction (SOI). A defining feature of the science of instruction is a focus on authentic learning situations rather than contrived learning situations, so Figure 1 shows "SOI" in the two quadrants on the right. A defining feature of the science of learning is a focus on testing learning theory, so "SOL" is shown in the two quadrants at the bottom of the figure. The four quadrants in Figure 1 are inspired by the work of Stokes (1997). The top left quadrant-conducting nontheoretical studies on contrived learning situations-is consistent with neither the SOL nor the SOI and is unlikely to yield information that is helpful for theory or practice. The top right quadrantconducting nontheoretical studies on authentic tasks-is consistent w...

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Section: Two Principles For Fostering Generative Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction.

Mayer

2008

American Psychologist

Self Cite

663

601

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“…Contextualizing the learning with personal goals (i.e., "your mission," "your journey") also facilitates learning (Moreno & Mayer, 2004). Even with subtle grammatical cues such as personal pronouns ("your lung") versus a more generic framing ("the lung"), this personalized text aids learning (Mayer, Fennell, Farmer, & Campbell, 2004). Some researchers recommend the secondperson pronoun for textbooks and computer-based tutorials because, "it connects the reader to the mathematics because it speaks to the reader directly" (Herbel-Eisenman & Wagner, 2005).…”

Section: Experiments 2: Conversational Narrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualization in Perspective

Son

Goldstone

2009

Cognition and Instruction

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“…The superiority of personalised over formal texts was demonstrated in multiple studies and mainly observed in measures of retention and transfer (Moreno & Mayer, 2000Mayer et al, 2004). Table 1 provides an overview about experiments on personalisation effect, also showing the effect sizes d and the statistical significance of group comparisons.…”

Section: The Personalisation Principle and Its Empirical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…multimedia learning, by optimising the cognitive or motivational conditions of the learning situation (Mayer, Fennell, Farmer & Campbell, 2004). In cognitive aspects, well and badly designed multimedia instructions differ in the way they impose load on working memory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A kind of expertise reversal effect: Personalisation effect can depend on domain-specific prior knowledge

Stiller

Jedlicka

2010

AJET

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In instructional multimedia design, it is often recommended that text accompanying pictures be presented in a personalised style to promote learning. The superiority of personalised over formal text may be explained using social agency theory (Mayer, 2005b), but it has not been investigated empirically whether such effects are valid in classroom settings, or depend on learner characteristics such as domain-specific prior knowledge. In this research, 65 pupils from the 10th grade of German grammar schools received computerised instructions about the structure of the human eye, containing static pictures and on screen text. The texts were written either in formal or in personalised style. Personalisation of the formal text was reached by replacing 130 impersonal articles with second person possessive pronouns and 24 third person articles with second person constructions. For learners with low prior knowledge, personalisation improved drawing and labeling performance, as well as the verbalisation of structural knowledge and transfer. For learners with higher prior knowledge, only labeling and drawing performance were improved, whilst structural knowledge was not affected and transfer performance was reduced.

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

Cited by 208 publications

References 12 publications

Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction.

Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction.

Contextualization in Perspective

A kind of expertise reversal effect: Personalisation effect can depend on domain-specific prior knowledge

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