Visual-verbal paired-associate learning (PAL) is thought to be related to reading acquisition and, more specifically, to word reading skills. To date, the uniqueness and strength of this relationship has remained unclear because most studies have been conducted in opaque orthographies such as English, and few studies have controlled for all of the…

During instruction, students are typically presented with new information through several modalities, such as language and images. Students need to attend to these different modalities and integrate the information in both in order to learn and generalize from instruction. Many studies have shown that the features of each modality, such as the use…

Many (digital) learning materials are often based on a combination of text and pictures, whereby pictures often only serve a decorative (learning-irrelevant) function. Such decorative pictures were proven as detrimental for learning success. In contrast, research on retrieval cues (also known as "memory cues") showed that a…

This study tested 3 instructor presence features in learning from video lectures: dynamic drawings, eye contact with the camera, and instructor visibility. In 2 experiments, college students watched a video lecture about the human kidney, which consisted of a series of drawings and a spoken explanation from the instructor, and then took a written…

Experiments showed that in verbal discrimination learning imaging the referent of the correct item was more facilitative than vocalizing the correct item, as long as the imagery structure was executed in the company of relevant motor activity. No difference between the two strategies was found in pictorial discrimination learning. (Author/BJG)

Results show that teacher techniques of maintaining appropriate lesson continuity vary between reading-demonstration formats and individual-construction formats. (Author)

Possible interactions of individual learning differences and mode of presentation were investigated in college students. Individual differences in learning were found to be reliable and just as predictable across as within modalities. Subjects could not be reliably classified in terms of auditory-visual preference scores. (Author/BH)

An unfamiliar story either was read to children from an illustrated book or presented as a televised film. Response measures examined recall of story content as well as inferences about characters and events. The groups differed in the type of information recalled and in the way inferences were made. (Author/GDC)

Two experiments explored the integration of animated agents into multimedia environments in the context of R. E. Mayer's (2001) cognitive theory of multimedia learning. The spoken-narration-only condition outperformed other conditions, with no differences between printed text and printed text with spoken narration. (Author)

Children with visual or auditory reading disorders and normally achieving children performed visual and auditory recognition tasks, with visual or auditory distractors presented. With distractors, learning disabled groups made more errors and did not improve over trials as much as controls. All groups made more errors when task and distractor were…

Questioning why illustrated text is commonly used for children in the absence of significant proof of its usefulness, the present author undertook a study to measure fourth graders' retention of three variations of a story book text. Results indicate illustrations have several effects on retention. (BJG)

Investigates the cues beginning readers use in recognizing verbal stimuli. (Author/DEP)

The effect of media presentations (oral, print, pictures, and combinations) on prose learning between high socioeconomic status white and low socioeconomic black children is compared and analyzed. (DEP)

Educable mental retardates and normal grade school students were presented seven classes of materials in both visual and auditory modalities for the determination of immediate memory span thresholds. Major conclusions included auditory presentation produces higher thresholds than visual, and retarded children may employ different processing…

Results showed that kindergarten children remember best under conditions in which both verbal and nonverbal stimulus cues are available. (Author)