Pre-Training Based on Causal Structure Improves Learning From a Multimedia Lesson

• In Event: Educational Interventions

Abstract

Understanding many science topics requires mentally representing the underlying causal structure of a concept. College students watched an animated lesson on the life cycle of fungi with or without pretraining. The base video presented the cycle in order. The pretraining reorganized the lesson script to move key phrases into a pre-lesson video supplemented with a diagram of the causal structure of the lesson. The control and pretraining lessons were identical except for the reorganization and the addition of the diagram. Seductive details were also manipulated. Pretraining significantly improved retention and transfer performance. Seductive details only affected retention. This study demonstrates how pretraining can help students form a well-organized mental model of a science topic.

Authors

• Siyuan Liu, University of California - San Diego
  Presenting Author

• Celeste Pilegard, University of California - San Diego
  Non-Presenting Author