MULTIMEDIA AND COMPREHENSION - THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG TEXT, ANIMATION, AND CAPTIONS

We report the results from the second phase of a cognitive study of mu ltimedia and its effect on children's learning. A sample of 71 childre n (12-year-olds) drawn from three primary schools viewed a procedural text that included a four-sequence animation with captions on how to f ind south using the sun's shadow. This multimedia sequence was adapted from a section within Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia using Apple Q uickTime. The children were divided into four groups, each of which vi ewed different media combinations: text only; text plus animation; tex t plus captions plus animation; and captions with animation. Shortly a fterwards the children were asked to undertake two tasks: To recall in their own words what they had learned, and also to enact how they wou ld find south using a model specially designed for this purpose. No si gnificant differences were found among the groups regarding literal re call of what they had read and seen, or in their ability to draw infer ences from it. The children in the text plus animation and captions gr oup, however, were more successful at identifying the major steps in t he procedure and at enacting that procedure whereas the children who r ead the text only experienced the most difficulty in performing the pr ocedure.