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The ability to flexibly allocate attention to goal-relevant information is pivotal for the completion of high-level cognitive processes. For instance, in comprehending illustrated texts, the reader permanently has to switch the attentional focus between the text and the corresponding picture in order to extract relevant information from both sources. Thus, the hypothesis was tested that individuals with a lower switching capacity exhibit a decreased performance in tasks that require the flexible switch of attention between two external representations. Participants read an illustrated text and answered questions that either required the extraction of information from the text alone or from the text and the corresponding illustration. In addition, a switching task was accomplished. Results indicate that a lower switching capacity resulted in a poorer performance in those tasks that required the extraction of relevant information from two sources.

When students read for learning, they frequently are required to integrate text and graphics information into coherent knowledge structures. The following study aimed at analyzing how students deal with texts and how they deal with graphics when they try to integrate the two sources of information. Furthermore, the study investigated differences between students from different school types and grades. Forty students from grades 5 and 8 from higher track and lower track of the German school system were asked to process and integrate texts and graphics in order to answer items from different levels of a text-picture integration taxonomy. Students' eye movements were recorded and analyzed. Results suggest fundamentally different functions of text and graphics, which are associated with different processing strategies. Texts are more likely to be used according to a coherence-formation strategy, whereas graphics are more likely to be used on demand as visual cognitive tools according to an information-selection strategy. Students from different tracks of schooling revealed different adaptivity with regard to the requirements of combining text and graphic information.

Animations presented at different speed are assumed to differentially interact with learners' perception and cognition due to the constraints imposed by learners' limited sensitivity to incoming dynamic information. To investigate the effects of high and low presentation speed of animation, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, participants were 55 students who learned about the functioning of a four-stroke engine from an animation with user-controlled presentation speed. In Study 2, eye movements of 19 students were analysed for different system-controlled presentation speeds of animation. Results indicated that high presentation speeds accentuated global events (i.e., macro-events), whereas low speeds accentuated local events (i.e., micro-events). However, eye movements were primarily affected by the content rather than the presentation speed of animation. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)

New technologies enable flexible combinations of text and interactive or non-interactive pictures. The aim of the present study was to investigate (a) whether adding pictures to texts is generally beneficial for learning or whether it can also have detrimental effects, (b) how interactivity of pictures affects learning, (c) whether the visualization format of pictures affects the structure of the learner's mental model, and (d) whether the visualization format modifies the effects of interactivity. One hundred university students were randomly assigned to five groups. In four groups, a text about the different daytimes and days on the earth was combined with interactive or non-interactive pictures of different visualization formats. In the fifth group, the text was presented without pictures. According to the results, adding pictures to text was neither beneficial nor harmful for learning. In terms of learning efficiency, however, learning from "text only" was "more" successful than learning from text and pictures. Interactivity was beneficial for one learning task, but not for the other task. The visualization format affected participants' interaction with pictures, but not the learning outcomes; however this effect was not influenced by interactivity. Implications for multimedia design and for further research are pointed out. (Contains 6 figures and 1 table.)

New technologies allow the display of text, static visuals, and animations. Although animations are inherently attractive, they are not always beneficial for learning. Problems may arise especially when animations modify the learner's cognitive load in an unintended way. In two learning experiments with 40 and 26 university students, the effects of animated pictures on knowledge acquisition were investigated. Some pictures displayed visual simulations of changes over time, whereas other pictures could be manipulated by learners to represent different states in time. Results showed that manipulation pictures had an enabling function for individuals with high learning prerequisites, whereas simulation pictures had a facilitating function for individuals with low learning prerequisites. However, the facilitating function was not beneficial for learning, because learners were prevented from performing relevant cognitive processes on their own. A careful analysis of the interrelation between different kinds of cognitive load and the process of learning is therefore required.

Dynamic subject matter can be portrayed to learners in the form of either static or dynamic depictions. Two plausible bases for choosing a depiction format are alignment with the subject matter's dynamics, or the specific affordances a depiction provides for performing a particular learning output task. Experimental participants viewed an ordered set of eight images depicting key stages of a kangaroo hop presented in a dynamic, successive or simultaneous format. Control participants viewed no presentation. The output task required participants to rearrange a random sequence of the eight kangaroo images into the correct order of a kangaroo hop. Those who viewed the successive presentation were most successful in placing the images in their correct order while those in the dynamic condition were least successful. The results contradict the prevailing instructional design orthodoxy that the dynamic properties of a depiction should be aligned with the dynamic nature of the referent content. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]