The cognitive theory of multimedia learning: what is it and what does it propose?

Summary of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, to take advantage of its educational potential.

When we talk about lifelong lessons at school, high school or any other educational level, we all agree that a book with images or a documentary in class was much more enjoyable than reading simple notes in which only words and more words came out.

It is not that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it seems that images combined with words, whether read or heard, make the information to be learned more powerful, more easily assimilated.

This is what is defended by the cognitive theory of multimedia learning.which argues that the combination of information that activates the verbal and the visual helps us to learn more deeply. Let's see it below.

What is the cognitive theory of multimedia learning?

When producing multimedia content for pedagogical purposes, all kinds of professionals who know how to design them and know how the human mind works should be involved. Pedagogues, psychologists, designers, illustrators, programmers and communicologists must be in charge of the design of these resources since multimedia, in itself, will not encourage learning, but the way in which it is designed will result in a better acquisition of the content taught..

The designer, whatever the field, must know how to take advantage of new technologies and adapt the contents in such a way that through the combination of different visual and auditory elements, support is given to the didactic objectives to be acquired in the academic curriculum. The planning and treatment of the information is something that must be very careful, since converting them into multimedia elements is not an easy task and requires a lot of time and effort to be invested.The planning and treatment of the information is something that must be very careful, since converting them into multimedia elements is not an easy task and requires time and effort to be invested.

Taking all this into account, we enter fully with the central premise of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, a model in which it is argued that a certain information is learned more deeply when it is presented in the form of words and images rather than just words. In other words, by transforming classic content, traditionally in written format, into something that has visual or auditory support, better learning is achieved.

This idea comes from Richard Mayer in 2005.The author of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, who proposes the cognitive theory of multimedia learning based on the idea that there are three types of memory storage (sensory memory, working memory and long-term memory) and further argues that individuals have two separate channels for processing information, one for verbal material and the other for visual material. Each channel can only process a small amount of information at a time, and can be supported by processing content presented in two different and complementary ways.

Significant learning from a multimedia element is the result of the learner's the learner's activity when presented with information that activates both channels, building ordered and integrated knowledge.. As the working memory has a rather limited cognitive load, in case of presenting too many elements of the same type at the same time it can be overloaded, exceeding the processing capacity and causing that part of those contents are not satisfactorily processed. Thus, in order to reduce its load, it is useful to activate two different channels a little instead of just one and in excess.

Richard Mayer's multimedia learning

Within the cognitive theory of multimedia learning Richard Mater argues that, in order to reduce the cognitive load on the working memory when presenting content, it is appropriate to present it in multimedia format, i.e, activating the two ways of receiving information: the visual and the verbal.. His principles about multimedia learning are directly related to the ideas emanating from John Sweller's cognitive load theory.

It is worth highlighting the idea of what is meant by multimedia content. We refer to multimedia content when a certain information is presented, such as a presentation or communication, in which words and images are included to promote learning. Based on this idea and on his scientific research, Mayer formulated up to eleven different principles that serve as a guide when designing multimedia material and that focus on facilitating learning, whether or not prior knowledge related to the new information is possessed.

Thus, from the cognitive theory of learning it is defended that understanding how a learner's human mind processes information will help to optimize the acquisition of a given content to the maximum.. Taking this into account, it will be possible to design guides for the management and design of multimedia contents, with the intention of making it easier for the student to build mental schemes about the new contents and to automate and introduce them in the long-term memory.

The three foundations of the theory

There are three foundations of the theory that justify its central premise, which holds that a given content is learned more deeply when it is presented in the form of a combination of words and images.

Images and words are not equivalent

The saying that an image is equivalent to a thousand words is not true. Images and words are neither equivalent nor do they provide the same information, but complement each other.. Through words we can better understand an image, and through images we can get a better idea and better understand what is stated in a text.

2. Verbal and visual information are processed through different channels.

As we have already suggested verbal or auditory information and visual or pictorial information are retained and processed in different channels.. The fact of processing information in more than one channel gives us advantages in capacity, encoding in our memory and retrieval. This strengthens recall and storage in long-term memory.

3. Integrating words and images produces deeper learning.

Integrating in working memory a word with an image or a verbal representation with a pictorial one involves some cognitive effort and processing. In turn, it facilitates relating this new information with previous learning, which provides deeper learning that remains in long-term memory and can be applied to problem solving in other contexts.

Multimedia learning and memory model

As we said, the model is based on the idea that our brain works with two information processing systems, one for visual material and the other for verbal material. The advantage of using these two channels is not quantitative, but rather qualitative since, as we mentioned before, visual and auditory information are complementary, not substitutes or equivalents. Deep comprehension occurs when the learner can build meaningful connections between verbal and visual representations..

When multimedia material is presented, information received in the form of words will be heard by the ears or read by the eyes, while images will be seen by the eyes. In both cases the new information will first pass through the sensory memory, where it will be briefly retained in the form of visual (images) and auditory (sounds) stimuli.

In the working memory the individual will perform the main activity of multimedia learning, since it is the space of our memory where we will perform the main activity of multimedia learning.This is the space in our memory where we will process new information as long as we keep it conscious. This memory has a very limited capacity and, as we have mentioned, tends to be overloaded. On the other hand, long-term memory has almost no limits and, when a piece of information is deeply processed, it ends up being stored in the latter space.

In the working memory, the selection of sounds and images will be made and the information will be organized transforming it into mental representations with coherence, that is to say, we will make a verbal mental model and a pictorial mental model based on what we have read, heard and seen. We will make sense of the information by integrating the visual representations with the verbal ones and relating them to the knowledge we have about previous data. As we can understand from all this, people are not passive receivers of new content, but actively process it.

Taking all this into account, we can end up summarizing this point in the three assumptions below.

Dual channel assumption

This model assumes that people process information in two separate channels, one for auditory informationone being that of auditory or verbal information and the other that of visual or pictorial information.

2. Limited capacity assumption

It is stated that the two channels of the above assumption have limited capacity. People's working memory can retain a limited number of words and images at the same time. a limited number of words and images at the same time..

Active processing assumption

It is argued that people actively engage in learning by attending to new incoming information. by attending to relevant new incoming information. They organize that selected information into coherent mental representations and integrate those representations with other prior knowledge.

The 11 principles of multimedia learning

Having seen in depth the whole cognitive theory of multimedia learning, we will finally look at the eleven principles to be taken into account when designing multimedia material to optimize learning. These are principles that should be considered in every classroom and course that is considered to be adapted to the 21st century.especially if you want to make the most of new technologies and multimedia and online resources.

1. Multimedia principle

People learn better when content is shown in image format combined with text rather than just words, being this principle the main premise of the whole cognitive theory of learning.This principle is the main premise of the whole cognitive theory of multimedia learning.

2. Principle of contiguity

We learn better when images and words that refer to the same content are located close to each other. to each other.

3. Principle of temporality

People learn best when words and their corresponding images are displayed on the screen simultaneously. are displayed on the screen simultaneously..

4. Modality principle

People learn better when multimedia content is of the modality of images with narration than images with text.

5. Redundancy principle

We learn better when the images used are explained either through narration or text, but not both at the same time.. In other words, presenting an image, a text and narrating it is rather a waste of time and resources, since its effect is neither cumulative nor multiplicative beyond the use of two supports.

6. Principle of coherence

People learn better when images, words or sounds that are not directly related to the content to be taught are eliminated from the screen.

7. Signaling principle

People learn better when there are added signals that indicate where we should pay our attention..

8. Segmentation principle

We learn best when content presented to us is divided into small sections and when it can be freely and easily and when we can navigate freely and easily through them.

9. Pre-training principle

We learn best when we are pre-trained in the key concepts to be explained before seeing the content developed. That is to say, it is better to be briefly introduced or given an "abstract" of what we are going to see before starting with the actual subject matter, giving us the opportunity to recall prior knowledge before the session, bring it to working memory and relate it as we go through it.This gives us the opportunity to recall prior knowledge before the session, bring it to working memory and relate it while the lesson is being explained.

10. Principle of personalization

When presenting multimedia material, whether in text with image or narration with image format, it is best to to present them in a close and familiar toneThis way, more is learned than when the tone is too formal.

11. Principle of voice

If the modality chosen is image with voice-over narration, people learn better when a voice-over narration is used. learn better when a human voice is used in digital resources rather than one created by means of software that reads the text in robotic audio.

Bibliographical references:

• Andrade-Lotero, Luis Alejandro (2012) Cognitive load theory, multimedia design and learning: a state of the art Magis. International Journal of Research in Education, 5(10), 75-92.