THE COGNITIVE IMPACT OF MULTIMEDIA SIMULATIONS ON 14-YEAR-OLD STUDENTS

The study investigated the cognitive impact of three different types o f multimedia simulation (physical, procedural and process) for teachin g the concept of energy to 14 year old students, A six cell design was used to control for gender and for three levels of prior achievement within a random sample of 36 students for each simulation, Pre and pos t-tests were administered, The results showed a significant, consisten t cognitive gain for the physical simulation - a surrogate exploration of how electricity is made in a power station. Results for the proced ural and process simulations revealed a more complex and varied patter n of interaction between type of simulation and student characteristic s which can be linked to specific design features.