Effectiveness of Multimedia Pedagogical Agents Predicted by Diverse Theories: a Meta-Analysis     

Castro-Alonso  Juan C.  Wong  Rachel M.  Adesope  Olusola O.  Paas  Fred 《Educational Psychology Review》2021,33(3):989-1015

Multimedia pedagogical agents are on-screen characters that allow users to navigate or learn in multimedia environments. Several agents’ characteristics may moderate their instructional effectiveness, including appearance, gender, nonverbal communication, motion, and voice. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis to test hypotheses from diverse theories predicting the effects of these agents’ characteristics. We tested predictions of cognitive load theory, cognitive theory of multimedia learning, computers are social actors, social agency theory, uncanny valley, and the action observation network. Our meta-analysis of 32 effect sizes (N?=?2104) revealed a small overall effect (g+?=?0.20), showing that learning with multimedia pedagogical agents was more effective than learning without these agents. As predicted by the redundancy effect of cognitive load theory and the coherence principle of cognitive theory of multimedia learning, 2D agents (g+?=?0.38) tended to be more effective than 3D agents (g+?=?0.11). As predicted by the computers are social actors hypothesis, most of the agents’ characteristics, including nonverbal communication, motion, and voice, appeared not to moderate their effectiveness. We conclude that multimedia pedagogical agents help learning through multimedia, and that students may be able to learn similarly from different types of agents.

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Five Strategies for Optimizing Instructional Materials: Instructor- and Learner-Managed Cognitive Load     

Castro-Alonso  Juan C.  de Koning  Bjorn B.  Fiorella  Logan  Paas  Fred 《Educational Psychology Review》2021,33(4):1379-1407

Educational Psychology Review - Researchers of cognitive load theory and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning have identified several strategies to optimize instructional materials. In this...  相似文献   

Visuospatial Processing Decline Due to Cannabis Consumption in Nondependent High School Students     

Goycolea  Rodrigo  Castro-Alonso  Juan C.  Dörr  Anneliese 《Educational Psychology Review》2021,33(2):619-635

Educational Psychology Review - Using cannabis (e.g., smoking marijuana) is becoming popular, partly due to a legalization trend across different countries. This tendency has resulted in cannabis...  相似文献   

Extending Cognitive Load Theory to Incorporate Working Memory Resource Depletion: Evidence from the Spacing Effect     

Ouhao Chen  Juan C. Castro-Alonso  Fred Paas  John Sweller 《Educational Psychology Review》2018,30(2):483-501

Depletion of limited working memory resources may occur following extensive mental effort resulting in decreased performance compared to conditions requiring less extensive mental effort. This “depletion effect” can be incorporated into cognitive load theory that is concerned with using the properties of human cognitive architecture, especially working memory, when designing instruction. Two experiments were carried out on the spacing effect that occurs when learning that is spaced by temporal gaps between learning episodes is superior to identical, massed learning with no gaps between learning episodes. Using primary school students learning mathematics, it was found that students obtained lower scores on a working memory capacity test (Experiments 1 and 2) and higher ratings of cognitive load (Experiment 2) after massed than after spaced practice. The reduction in working memory capacity may be attributed to working memory resource depletion following the relatively prolonged mental effort associated with massed compared to spaced practice. An expansion of cognitive load theory to incorporate working memory resource depletion along with instructional design implications, including the spacing effect, is discussed.  相似文献