| The ability of computers to deliver information in multiple forms and presentation styles makes them an attractive resource for delivery of instruction. However, in spite of broad declarations about the positive impact of multimedia on children's cognitive development and academic achievement, to date there is little empirical evidence to support such claims.;This study applied the Limited Capacity Model of Mediated Message Processing (LC3MP) to study how 10-to-12 year olds (tweens) process a multimedia message delivered by a computer. Specifically, it measured subjects' physiological responses to animation and sound effects and correlated this data with recognition and recall scores to determine whether the presence of animation and/or sound effects had an impact on attention to and memory for a multimedia message.;Seventy-two tweens viewed 22 slides in a multimedia lesson about the fictional planet Zoldar. The independent variables in the study, animation and sound effects, were completely crossed resulting in four message categories: no animation/no sound effect, animation/no sound effect, no animation/sound effect, and animation/sound effect.;Throughout the lesson, subjects saw each condition four times. Following viewing, memory for animated information, sound information, and neutral (neither animation nor sound) information was tested.;Results indicated that the presence of animation elicited both short-term, automatic attention and longer-term, controlled attention, and that this resulted in increased encoding, storage, and retrieval of the animated information. Sound effects, although eliciting attention and arousal, had a significant effect on retrieval, but did not significantly effect encoding or storage---subjects' recognition and cued recall for sound information was nearly as good without the presence of sound effects as it was with the presence of sound effects.;The findings suggest that animation can be used to narrowly target learning of specific facts and concepts irrespective of the content, as long as the animated elements are specifically matched to the facts or concepts to be learned. The benefit of sound appears to be inherent in the channel when sound is important to the content. When there is pertinent sound information in a message, instructional designers are advised to give already present sound features prominent play in lessons. |
