Expertise Reversal Effect In Multimedia Learning

It was showed that the learning outcome of multimedia learning is influenced by learners’ prior knowledge. The effective multimedia presentation for novice learners may be ineffective or even deleterious for advanced learners, and vice versa, this phenomenon is called expertise reversal effect. Expertise reversal effect is an important finding on multimedia learning research, which can provide effective guidance to adaptive multimedia learning. Concentrating on two major forms of multimedia learning:animation and interactivity, this research explored the phenomenon of expertise reversal effect as well as analyzed the cause of this effect from cognitive load perspective.This dissertation includes three parts. In the first part of the dissertation, a review on the definitions, theories and researches of multimedia learning, expertise reversal effect and cognitive load measurement was presented. This dissertation gave a deliberated analysis on existing researches of expertise reversal effect, as well as the various cognitive load measurement methods. Based on these analyses, the research questions, assumption and framework were brought forward.The second part is empirical research, including three studies. They are subjective measure study on cognitive load, expertise reversal effect study on animation and expertise reversal effect study on interactive multimedia. Study1is based on experiment1. Expertise reversal effect is related to cognitive load experienced by learners when they process multimedia learning materials. Therefore, study1explored three different subjective measures for extraneous cognitive load, intrinsic cognitive load and germane cognitive load, which layed the foundation for further exploring the cause of expertise reversal effect in different representational forms. Study2explored expertise reversal effect in animation, including experiment2, experiment3and experiment4. Experiment2mainly revealed expertise reversal effect on instructional animation versus static pictures. Experiment3and experiment4 showed the expertise reversal effect on two different animation strategies-controlling and cueing. Study3, which included experiment5and experiment6, explored the reversal effect in learner control and feedback, which are two main forms of interactivity. Details are as follows.Experiment1explored and verified the effective subjective measurement for three different types of cognitive load on the basis of the prior studies on cognitive load measurement. It was found that difficulty rating was most sensitive to indications of intrinsic cognitive load, mental effort rating can be the index of germane cognitive load; usability rating was sensitive index for extraneous cognitive load. These three subjective ratings were used for the measurement of cognitive load in the subsequent five experiments.Experiment2had two subexperiments. Experiment2a explored the different learning outcome that learners with different prior knowledge learn how to wear ties by using instructional animation or static images. Results showed that novice learners had better operational performance by learning animation; as for advanced learners, there was no significant difference in learning outcome between animation and static images. The result showed the phenomenon of expertise reversal effect. The subjects in experiment2b were the same as experiment2a, while learning content was AIDs virus infection. The result indicated expertise reversal effect. Novice learners benefited more from static images than from instructional animation, while more knowledgeable learners did not show any difference between these two representations. The subjective rating on cognitive load indicated that the differences in extraneous cognitive load were the main factors which affect the learning outcome differences. In Experiment2, the results also showed that learning content types could affect the effectiveness of animation and pictures.Experiment3replicated the expertise reversal effect in controllable animation. Learners with different level of prior knowledge learned virus infection via continuous animation, learner-paced animation with’stop’and’play’button or scrollbar animation. It was found that novice leaners benefited more from animation with’stop’and’play’button and scrollbar animation than continuous animation in retention performance, while no difference in transfer performance. As for advanced learners, scrollbar animation benefited them for transfer performance, but not for retention. The subjective cognitive load measure indicated that the difference of extraneous cognitive load caused by the different animated presentation is the main factor affecting the difference of retention.Experiment4showed an expertise reversal effect of cueing animation:animation with visual cueing was more effective than uncued conditions for learners with lower level of prior knowledge, but not for learners with higher level of prior knowledge. The subjective cognitive load measure showed that cueing had an impact on extraneous cognitive load, which finally affected learning outcomes.Experiment5revealed a significant interaction (an expertise reversal effect) between the effectiveness of different learner controls (system control, information delivery control, representation forms control and content control) and levels of learner prior knowledge. The results showed that information delivery control and representation forms control, as the lower level of control mode, were mainly effective for novice learners and improved retention performance. Content control, which was a higher level control, could promote advanced learners’ knowledge construction and increase germane cognitive load, mainly have positive influence for transfer performance. According to the measurement of cognitive load, extraneous cognitive load is the mediating factor between the control types and retention performance, while germane cognitive load is mediating factor between control types and transfer performance.Experiment6showed the interaction between the feedback types and learners with different prior knowledge. For novice learners, correct answer feedback and elaborated feedback showed superiority over verification feedback and no feedback in retention tests, while elaborated feedback also showed superiority on transfer tests. For advanced learners, the elaborated feedback, correct answer feedback, verification feedback and no feedback had no significant difference in learning outcome. The expertise reversal effect was replicated.The third part in this dissertation is the comprehensive discussion and conclusion. Based on the experimental research combined with the conclusions of other studies, subjective cognitive load measure, expertise reversal effect in instructional animation and expertise reversal effect in interactive multimedia are summarized. The reasons for expertise reversal effect were particularly discussed in comprehensive discussion. It was believed that learners might experience cognitive overload, redundancy effect or cognitive idler in multimedia learning. Cognitive overload and redundancy effects could increase extraneous cognitive load, while cognitive idler might lead to lower germane cognitive load, all could be the causes expertise reversal effect. At last, the author reflected on the limitations of this research and put forward the prospects for further research.