In light of the phenomena of voluntary and involuntary initiation of cognitive tasks by multi-media presentations are multi- or mono-media instructional materials more efficacious to learners? Why?

Kimbrilee Schmitz

Multi-media instruction can invoke multi-tasking in learners on voluntary and involuntary levels. Several information channels may be in operation and may be activated consciously or unconsciously. During learning, one or more channels may be utilizing the maximum cognitive resources available. Under those conditions, cross-channel interference may be more likely. In light of the phenomena of voluntary and involuntary initiation of cognitive tasks by multi-media presentations are multi- or mono-media instructional materials more efficacious to learners? Why?

Multi-media instruction uses both words, spoken or written, and pictures to teach, it may also use interactive activities. Multi-media instruction is done so that more than one of our senses is used to learn information. By using multiple senses (auditory/visual) at the same time allows a learner to store information in multiple places which should enhance memory recall at a later time (Mayer, 2014). A person may be voluntarily listening to a video clip while involuntarily seeing the pictures flashed on the screen. They may not realize they are using multiple senses to learn the information but when needed they may use the information that was seen and not heard to recall the information learned. The problem with multi-media instruction is that it may overload the cognitive resources of an individual.

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Mono-media instruction involves only one sense (visual or auditory) at a time. An individual can hear the information, read the information or see the information in pictures. This type of instruction will not cause cognitive overload, but may also lead to the information only being stored in one place. At times information that is auditory may be stored as visual if an individual has prior knowledge of what the information should look like (Mayer, 2014). Because multi-media instruction taps into more areas where an individual can store information it is usually the best for instructional material.

Kimbrilee Schmitz