Learning with animations compared to static pictures: Extracting vs. inferring information about dynamic relationships

• Applicant: Dr. Tim Kühl
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259148645

The current state of research on learning with animations compared to static pictures is inconsistent. Thus, it is reasonable to specify why and under which conditions a given type of visualization might be advantageous. An important factor is the informational advantage of animations: Changes of velocity can exclusively be represented in animations, but not in static pictures. This is considered as a precondition for animations to be beneficial within this research project. Accordingly, an instructional material was chosen for which animations and static pictures solely differ in the presentation of dynamic information, namely the changes of velocity.Based on this plausible advantage of animation, the research project aims at investigating factors, which might moderate learning with animations compared to static pictures. At this, within four experiments the impact of several variables will be analyzed by using the same kind of instructional material. (1) The impact of textual information: In multimedia instruction, visualizations are combined with verbal information. It will be examined if specific textual information about dynamic properties will moderate learning with animations and static pictures, since the textual information might compensate for the lack of information in static pictures. In this context, eye-tracking data will be assessed to test whether this will be mirrored by different gaze behaviors.(2) The impact of inferring information: It will be tested if prompting learners to infer dynamic relationships might compensate for the lack of information about these relations in static pictures. Moreover, it is hypothesized that prompting learners to infer this information will pay off in the long run, particularly when learning with static pictures as opposed to animations. To examine this assumption, time of testing (immediately vs. delayed) will be varied.(3) The impact of expertise: It is assumed that when information about dynamic properties is not given by the text, related cognitive schemata may act as a compensator when learning with static pictures, and once again may particularly pay off in the long run. The related schemata will be conveyed to learners in a controlled manner.(4) The impact of complexity: Finally, the impact of the complexity of the instructional material on learning with the two types of visualizations will be investigated. The advantage of animations might become evident, if the complexity of the instructional material is increased, even if information about dynamic relations is given in the text.For all experiments, besides the commonly used text-based learning outcome measures, also pictorial-based learning outcome measures (static and animated) will be used.Investigating these potential moderating variables, by a given informational advantage of animations, may explain the inconsistent state of research in this field to a certain degree. Thereby, these variables address a lack of research.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants