Animated demonstrations vs written instructions for learning procedural tasks: a preliminary investigation

Abstract

Animated demonstrations have been created due to the development of direct manipulation interfaces and the need for faster learning, so that users can learn interface procedures by watching. To compare animated demonstrations with written inst~~ions we observed users learning and performing HyperCardTMS authoring tasks on the Ma~nt~h~ during three performance sessions. In the training session, users were asked either to watch a demonstration or read the procedures needed for the task and then to perform the task. In the later two sessions users were asked to perform tasks identical or similar to the tasks used in the training session. Results showed that demons~ations provided faster and more accurate learning during the training session. However, during the later sessions those who saw demonstrated procedures took longer to perform the tasks than did users of written instructions. Users appeared to be mimicking the training demonstrations without processing the information which would he needed later. In fact, when users had to infer procedures for tasks which were similar to those seen in the training session, the text group was much better at deducing the necessary procedures than the demons~ation group. These findings indicate that animated demonstrations, as they were implemented for this study, were not robust enough to aid in later transfer.

Animation: can it facilitate?

“…Palmiter and colleagues compared animated and still graphics for teaching students how to use an on-line help system for Hypercard 1 (Palmiter, Elkerton & Baggett, 1991;Palmiter & Elkerton, 1993). Although the students using the animation completed the training task more quickly, they completed the testing task more slowly.…”

Understanding dynamic and static displays: using images to reason dynamically

“…However, many studies have found that animations by themselves do not improve performance (Byrne, Catrambone, & Stasko, 1999;Mayer & Anderson, 1991;Palmiter & Elkerton, 1993;Palmiter, Elkerton, & Baggett, 1991;Rieber, Boyce, & Assad, 1990) unless they provide more information than static images (Pane, Corbett, & John, 1996;Tversky, Morrison, & Betrancourt, 2002). The finding that animations by themselves do not improve performance has led many researchers to question their usefulness (Palmiter & Elkerton, 1993;Pane et al, 1996), suggesting that animations should be used only in very limited situations, i.e.…”

“…only when necessary and when the animation is not too difficult to use (Betrancourt & Tversky, 2000). But most of these studies have been performed in laboratory settings (e.g., Kaiser, Proffitt, Whelan, & Hecht, 1992;Palmiter et al, 1991) or use tasks specially crafted to show animated or static pictures (e.g., Pane et al, 1996;Rieber, 1991 (Palmiter & Elkerton, 1993), to teach computer science algorithms (Byrne et al, 1999) to teach how something works (Mayer & Anderson, 1991;Pane et al, 1996), and to understand other complex dynamic systems, like the weather (Lowe, 1999). Indeed, the prevalent feeling in this body of literature is that animations should be better than static images because, by a principle of congruence, animations should be a natural medium for conveying information about change, just as graphics are a natural way for conveying information about space (Tversky et al, 2002).…”

Assessment of the ACSE Science Learning Environment and the Impact of Movies and Simulations

“…The 3d images are viewed with cardboard glasses containing one red and one blue lens. page 14 (5) Simulation (5) Other (7) ACSE 73 (9) 70 (12) 78 (10) 72 (10) Control 71 (9) 72 (14) 71 (9) 71 (10) …”

“…But similar studies in physics learning did not find significant improvements [ 11], [12]. There is evidence that use of movies may result in speed improvements on immediate recall tasks, but that the effect is reversed on long term recall tasks [9]. But even in cases where improvements are slight, students have a high perceived value of movies [1], [14].…”