Does Drawing Diagrams by Hand Help Students Learn From Multimedia Messages?

• In Event: Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Division C Section 2a Poster Session 4: Cognitive Processes

Abstract

In four experiments, students viewed already-drawn diagrams while listening to a concurrent explanation of the Doppler effect or listened to the same explanation while viewing the instructor draw diagrams by hand. Experiment 1 indicated that for low prior knowledge learners watching the instructor draw diagrams resulted in better transfer test performance than viewing already-drawn diagrams. In Experiment 2, participants who watched the instructor draw diagrams by viewing only the instructor’s hand outperformed the control group. In Experiment 3, participants who watched diagrams being drawn without viewing the instructor’s hand did not outperform the control group. In Experiment 4, participants who observed the instructor draw diagrams with only the instructor’s hand visible marginally outperformed those who viewed the instructor’s entire body.

Authors

• Logan Fiorella, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Richard E. Mayer, University of California - Santa Barbara