Multimedia Lab

Multimedia learning environments are characterized by presenting both, verbal and pictorial information. The advantage of multimedia instruction over single medium instruction (text) can be explained by specific properties of visualizations that foster learning. That is, pictures may be particularly useful for quickly recognizing visual-spatial relationships. They also may substitute reasoning and inferences grounded in perception for cognitively demanding logical inferences, thereby relieving the cognitive system. In addition, when combined with text, visualizations support learners with interpreting the text and mentally organizing the presented relationships. Furthermore, it is argued that learning with visualizations results in an analogical knowledge representation which complements the linguistic knowledge representation derived from the text and which can also be used during reasoning. However, these potential advantages of multimedia learning are not expressed in all circumstances; rather, they depend on specific characteristics of the text and the picture as well as on the way these representational formats interact.

The Multimedia Research Lab covers two avenues of research concerning how and under which circumstances learning with multimedia in different subject areas is more beneficial than learning with only one representation:

Cognitive foundations of multimedia learning

In the first avenue of research, the question of which cognitive processes contribute to learning with different multimedia presentation formats is addressed. Here, theories and models concerning cognition and perception during learning are combined with different methods to investigate information processing (e.g., eye tracking and verbal protocols) and are interpreted by taking their relation to learning outcomes for different contents into account. An important question is how different components of working memory are involved in the processing of multimedia information.
The procedure within this avenue of research is depicted in the cube: by combining different methods, contents and experimental manipulations, it is possible to systematically test which processes are involved in multimedia learning and to what extent these processes differ for different types of learning content.

Media-based support for knowledge acquisition in the Natural Sciences

In the second avenue of research, the question of how multimedia can be used for teaching and learning subject-specific competences in school-related instructional contexts is addressed and also, which subject-specific and general media-related knowledge and skills are required in order to be able to profit from computer-based instruction is considered. Assuming that students have to apply certain cognitive strategies in order to benefit from multimedia learning material, it is also researched into how these strategies can be conveyed, for instance, by means of trainings and how their use can be guaranteed in the concrete learning situation.