Morehead State University

Effect of Visual-Audio Redundancy on Serial Recall Accuracy

Grade Level at Time of Presentation

Senior

Major

Psychology

Minor

Mathematics

Institution

Morehead State University

KY House District #

H072

KY Senate District #

27

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

Studies have provided evidence for the redundancy effect of multimedia learning which states that the addition of identical on-screen text to an audio presentation leads to poorer recall than audio alone. However, some studies argue against the effect, showing that redundancy may actually benefit learning. Redundancy is a common occurrence in learning environments, so it is important to determine when redundancy is good or bad for learning. In the present study, participants (n=20) completed a serial recall task. In each trial, they were presented a set of seven numbers and then recalled the numbers in order. There were ten trials per block and a total of five identical blocks. The study included three conditions, visual-only (nonredundant), audio-only (nonredundant), and visual-audio (redundant). The purpose for this study was to examine the effects of visual-audio redundancy on learning. Our first hypothesis was that learning would be better in the audio-only condition than the visual-only and visual-audio conditions. Our second hypothesis was that learning would be better in the visual-audio condition than in the visual-only and audio-only conditions. Preliminary data analysis suggested that there were no significant differences in percent correct among the three conditions. There was a significant block by condition interaction [F(8, 48) = 2.943, p = .009]. It appears that the audio-only and visual-only conditions resulted in a gradual increase in percent correct from block-1 to block-5. However, the visual-audio condition instead resulted in percent correct peaking at block-3 and then decreasing, suggesting that the visual-audio condition was less effective at facilitating learning than the other two conditions. Further analyses and conclusions discussed.

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Effect of Visual-Audio Redundancy on Serial Recall Accuracy

Studies have provided evidence for the redundancy effect of multimedia learning which states that the addition of identical on-screen text to an audio presentation leads to poorer recall than audio alone. However, some studies argue against the effect, showing that redundancy may actually benefit learning. Redundancy is a common occurrence in learning environments, so it is important to determine when redundancy is good or bad for learning. In the present study, participants (n=20) completed a serial recall task. In each trial, they were presented a set of seven numbers and then recalled the numbers in order. There were ten trials per block and a total of five identical blocks. The study included three conditions, visual-only (nonredundant), audio-only (nonredundant), and visual-audio (redundant). The purpose for this study was to examine the effects of visual-audio redundancy on learning. Our first hypothesis was that learning would be better in the audio-only condition than the visual-only and visual-audio conditions. Our second hypothesis was that learning would be better in the visual-audio condition than in the visual-only and audio-only conditions. Preliminary data analysis suggested that there were no significant differences in percent correct among the three conditions. There was a significant block by condition interaction [F(8, 48) = 2.943, p = .009]. It appears that the audio-only and visual-only conditions resulted in a gradual increase in percent correct from block-1 to block-5. However, the visual-audio condition instead resulted in percent correct peaking at block-3 and then decreasing, suggesting that the visual-audio condition was less effective at facilitating learning than the other two conditions. Further analyses and conclusions discussed.