Modality Principle

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Dahwun Kim, Learning Design and
Technology dahwun_at_stanford.edu
Modality Principle
Present Words as Speech Rather than Onscreen
Text
Avoid ways that conflicts with Cognitive Theory
of Learning
Why?

Human have separate information processing
channels for visual/pictorial processing and for
auditory/verbal processing

Auditory Sounds
Visual Representation
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Multimedia
Sensory Memory
Working Memory
Phonetic Processing
Printed Words
Pictorial Images
Visual Processing
avoid overloading visual channel of working memory
Spoken Words
Phonetic Processing
Pictorial Images
Visual Processing
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Redundancy Principle 1
Present Words in Both Text and Audio

• Avoid presenting words as narration and identical
  text in the presence of graphics

Information Delivery Theory
Cognitive Theory of Multimedia learning
vs
Separate channels for processing verbal and
pictorial information
People learn by adding information to memory
Each channel is limited in the amount of
processing (at one time)
Learners actively build pictorial verbal models
from the presented material and build connections
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Redundancy Principle 2

• Consider the narration of onscreen text in
  special situations

Situations to consider/avoid Narration
()

• When there are no pictures.
• The learner has ample time to process the
  pictures and words.
• The learner is likely to have difficulty
  processing spoken words

(-)

• Words and pictures are presented simultaneously
  at fast pace