Designing Text and Visualizations in Multimedia Learning - How to Overcome Split Attention Effects?

Present words as spoken text rather than printed text is a common recommendationfor designing multimedia instructions. The book takes a closerlook at this recommendation by raising two questions: (1) How do learnersdistribute their visual attention during multimedia learning? And (2) whichdesign features moderate effects of text presentation on perception andcomprehension? The results of five empirical studies suggest that spoken textis only preferable under particular constraints. The learners' viewing behavior- observed via eye tracking - revealed a general preference for printed textthat is distracted by particular design features. Once learners are relievedfrom time constrained presentation or from following motion in a dynamicvisualization the need to split visual attention between printed text andvisualizations loses much of its impact. Understanding the demands of alearning material on the learner's perception and accounting for individualreading behavior by implementing user interaction appears promising toadvance the design of multimedia instructions in a learner-supportingfashion.