Glossary · 5 · Multimedia and visual information
Cognitive theory of multimedia learning
Also known as: CTML, Mayer's multimedia principles
German: kognitive Theorie multimedialen Lernens
The cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Richard E. Mayer) explains how people learn from words and pictures together on three assumptions: information is processed in separate visual-pictorial and auditory-verbal channels, each channel has limited capacity, and learning requires active processing — selecting, organizing and integrating words and pictures with prior knowledge; design principles for multimedia instruction are derived from it.
- Applied cognitive psychology
- Multimedia and visual information
In one sentence
Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning: dual channels, limited capacity, active processing; it underlies the multimedia design principles.
Example
A training module on a filler's CIP cycle is redesigned along Mayer's principles: the animation is narrated instead of captioned with the same text, labels sit on the parts they name, and a decorative intro video is removed.
Rests on
- Dual coding theory and Working memory: separate channels for verbal and pictorial information, each limited.
- Cognitive load theory: extraneous processing competes with the processing needed to understand.
How it applies
- Principles: Mayer groups the derived principles by what they do: reduce extraneous processing (coherence, signaling, redundancy, spatial and temporal contiguity), manage essential processing (segmenting, pre-training, modality) and foster generative processing (multimedia, personalization and others).
- Technical documentation: Use words and pictures together where both carry meaning; place labels and callouts on the figure; keep decorative material out of instructions; segment long animations; narrate animations in training.
- Machinery and software: Exploded views with labels at the parts, screenshots with callouts next to the step, video instructions with narration.
Limits
- The evidence comes mostly from short learning experiments with university students on causal explanations (how brakes, lightning or pumps work), measured by retention and transfer tests. Effects on performance in real tasks, with experts and with reference use are less studied.
- Several effects shrink or reverse with prior knowledge (expertise reversal effect).
- The principles concern learning from instruction; they do not decide what information is required, and none of them justifies omitting safety-related information.