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Project Description

Research on multimedia learning has shown that a presentation of text and picture leads to better comprehension than a presentation of text only (Mayer, 2009). In order to fully profit from multimedia, however, an active processing of both representations is necessary. Learners can achieve this by applying cognitive strategies (Weinstein & Mayer, 1986). Cognitive strategies specific to multimedia learning can be derived from the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer, 2009). They pertain to the selection of relevant information in text and picture, to the organization of selected information into verbal and pictorial mental representations by connecting relevant elements within each respective representation, and to the integration of both mental representations (Kombartzky, Plötzner, Schlag, & Metz, 2001).
However, students also have to learn when and how to use these strategies. If the initiation of behavior is not yet automated, the active and deliberate use of strategies demands central-executive resources (Ferndandez-Duque, Baird, & Posner, 2000). Therefore, measures for improving the use of cognitive strategies should aim at facilitating the automation of strategy initiation. To achieve this, we suggest the use of implementation intentions.
Implementation intentions represent specific “if-then” plans that link situational cues with the actions necessary for attaining a goal (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). Once a person has formed an implementation intention, the situational cues defined therein become highly activated and will facilitate the recognition of a situation that requires a corresponding action. Recognizing this situation will then automatically trigger this action. Therefore, the use of implementation intentions should be advantageous compared to an active and cognitively demanding control of action.

The purpose of this dissertation project is to investigate how implementation intentions can be used to support the use of cognitive strategies in learning with text and picture, thereby optimizing comprehension in multimedia learning.
In a first study it was investigated whether implementation intentions would foster the use of cognitive strategies and hence improve learning outcomes as a function of the learners’ current motivation to learn. It was shown that implementation intentions significantly improved the learning outcomes of learners with low motivation. In a second experiment, we study how implementation intentions should be optimally designed in order to foster strategy use. Two dimensions of implementation intentions are of interest. First, we investigate which kind of strategy evoked by implementation intentions (i.e. reading strategies, picture strategies, integration strategies) is most effective for learning. We assume that supporting the use of integration strategies via implementation intentions should lead to the best learning outcomes. Second, we vary the number of concurrently used implementation intentions (one implementation intention vs. three implementation intentions). We hypothesize that the use of several implementation intentions should lead to a more adaptive use of strategies. Online data about the processing of text and picture will be extracted from the recordings of learners’ eye movements.