Abstracts - Earli

learning from a simulation took less time to study the material than participants learning from ananimation. We concluded that a higher level of interactivity improved the efficiency of themultimedia instruction.The effects of realistic detail in learning from dynamic visualizationsKatharina Scheiter, University of Tübingen, GermanyPeter Gerjets, Knowledge Media Research Center, GermanyThomas Huk, Westermann Verlag, GermanyThe study investigated the role of realistic and schematic dynamic visualizations for knowledgeacquisition. Seventy-nine university students with little prior knowledge studied two dynamicvisualizations on the process of mitosis before answering different types of questions that assessedlearning outcomes. Both visualizations illustrated the same process and were accompanied by thesame verbal explanations. There were four experimental conditions: In a realistic-realisticcondition learners studied the same high fidelity dynamic visualization twice (i.e., moviesrecorded via a microscope). In the schematic-schematic condition mitosis was depicted by adynamic series of simple line drawings, which were shown twice to students. In the schematicrealisticcondition, students first saw the schematic dynamic visualization, which was followed bythe realistic one. Finally, in the realistic-schematic condition this presentation order was reversed.The results showed that learners in the realistic-realistic condition answered fewer multiple-choicequestions correctly, identified fewer errors in manipulated static pictures, and completed fewerpartial static pictures correctly than learners in all the other conditions. This pattern of results was,however, no longer observable in the delayed posttest that was taken two weeks later. The resultsfor the evaluation and cognitive load measures furthermore indicated that especially those studentswho had seen both types of visualizations rated the schematic visualizations as more helpful andreported lower task demands. Results of the study are discussed against the background of findingsby Dwyer, who found that schematic static pictures were superior to realistic pictures only forspecific tasks and under specific instructional conditions.Do visual texts and pictures interfere in working memory?Ralf Rummer, Saarland University, GermanyJudith Schweppe, Saarland University, GermanyA crucial finding in cognitive multimedia research is the so-termed modality effect (i.e., thefinding that learning and memory performance is better when pictures are accompanied byauditory texts than by visual texts. Cognitive multimedia theories attribute this effect to anoverload of visuo-spatial working memory in the visual text situation since visual texts andpictures are said to be processed (and stored) in the same subsystem. However, this view is not inline with common theories of working memory. In the present study we test another (thoughrelated) explanation for the modality effect. From literature on working memory we know thatdirected eye-movements hamper spatial rehearsal. As reading requires such directed eyemovementsit is plausible to assume that eye-movements during reading (standard texts) decreaseshort-term memory for pictorial information as well which might lead to a modality effect. Ourexperiment tests this hypothesis by investigating picture recognition after hearing auditory text,reading visual standard text, or reading visual text presented word-by-word at the centre of thecomputer monitor. As expected picture recognition is worst in the standard reading condition (i.e.,the only condition that requires eye-movements). The two other conditions lead to significantlybetter picture recognition but do not differ from each other. We discuss these findings with regardto cognitive theories of multimedia learning.– 856 –