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20 - The Modality Principle in Multimedia Learning

from Part V - Principles for Managing Essential Processing in Multimedia Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

By
Juan Cristobal Castro-Alonso  and
John Sweller
Edited by
Richard E. Mayer  and
Logan Fiorella
Richard E. Mayer
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Logan Fiorella
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

When dealing with instructional information, working memory can be divided into auditory and visual processors. The capacity limits of each processor are a major impediment when students are required to learn new material. Nevertheless, there is one strategy that can effectively expand working memory capacity by using the partially independent status of the auditory and visual processors. Under specific and well-defined conditions, presenting some information in visual mode and other information in auditory mode can increase effective working memory capacity and so reduce the effects of cognitive overload. This effect is called the instructional modality effect or modality principle. It is an instructional principle that can substantially increase learning. This chapter discusses the theory and data that underpin the principle and the instructional implications that flow from the principle.

Keywords

modality principleauditiory processorvisual processorsplit-attention effectcognitive load theory
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning , pp. 261 - 267
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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