Researchers studying the role various media and mediums play in information retention find auditory learning to be the most effective

Source: studentadvisor.com

Increasing numbers of researchers are trying to determine the most effective ways in which students absorb academic material. The introduction of an abundance of technology into society over the last couple of decades has caused scientists and civilians alike to question the role media plays in the effectiveness of learning processes. A study published by the American Psychological Association discovered that immersive technology and media does not necessarily equate to deeper comprehension and retention. The main conclusion of the study? Narration is the best teaching method when it comes to student retention.

The multi-faceted 2002 study, Learning Science in Virtual Reality Multimedia Environments: Role of Methods and Media, ventures to determine if a variety of modern day media and mediums help or hinder information retention. The study found that media has an effect on students’ sense of presence, but there were no direct results that indicated this sense of presence leading to higher academic performance or information retention. A sense of presence due to media immersions and simulation demonstrates the revolutionary capabilities of today's technology, but doesn't directly aid in the learning process.

The study did prove that students retain auditory content better than visual content, but media nor an immersive environment did not show to have a positive or negative effect on material retention. That being said, the method by which information is presented does affect the effectiveness of retention. Animation paired with narration or animation paired with narration and text are more effective teaching tools than narration paired with text. 

Background information

The research was conducted in a college environment testing for the role media and virtual reality environments (VRE) play in the absorption of academic material. The study tested a series of related hypotheses regarding how media can enhance or hinder a learning experience and how deeply immersion into an educational context can heighten retention of material.

The various hypotheses and experiments test how various presentation methods, the medium through which the material is conveyed and the cohesion between a medium and a method can affect learning and information retention.

In any scientific study it is important to match any abstract concepts with concrete, measurable variables, a process called operationalization. In this study, the researchers, Roxana Moreno and Richard E. Mayer, operationalize “learning,” the key outcome being measured. Through related research, learning was determined to have three key parts; retention, the ability to write down information from ones memory, transfer, the ability to solve problems that have not been previously presented, and program rating, the ability to determine and then rate learning ease.

The study encompasses three experiments with related variables and questions. All studies were conducted in groups of college students and the material they were given and then evaluated based on was about plant science. 

The second phase of the Design-A-Plant interactive game
where students choose the appropriate stem for the plant
based on the climate's credentials.
Source: Moreno and Mayer, The American Psychological
Association

The methods

The first experiment tested to see if narration (N), a verbal narrative teaching method, or text (T) written information on a screen, would be more beneficial to cognitive processing. The researchers had some students listen to a lecture while others read information on a screen before they
were evaluated on the information they had been exposed to. This experiment also utilized an interactive computer game where students had to virtually grow an adapted plant in a climate based on the climate's features. Researchers hypothesized that narration may be a more effective learning method due to the cognitive theory that attributes visual processing overload to visual stimulation.

Narration yields higher retention, transfer and program
rating than each other medium.
Source: Moreno and Mayer, The American Psychological 
Association

The second experiment maintained the “N” and “T” variables, but also added in a third variable, narration and text (NT). The thinking behind the third variable is that the pairing of auditory and visual elements could have a completely different effect than when the two are segregated. Similar to the first experiment, researchers hypothesized that a similar sensory overload, called the redundancy effect, could occur due to the abundance of mediums.

The third experiment focused more on the role immersive media can play in the learning process. The researchers defined immersion as, “the extent to which computer displays are capable of defining an inclusive, extensive, surrounding and vivid illusion of reality to the sense of human participant.” This is an important term to define in order to design an experiment that simulates immersion and determines when a student feels they have experienced immersion. This experiment introduces a few new variables such as desktop display (D) and head-mounted display (HMD). These variables were used in contexts where subjects were walking and sitting. “D” represents lower immersion compared to HMD, which represents high immersion.


The main conclusion that can be drawn from these methods is that narration is the most effective tool for information retention, transfer and program rating, which is shown in the table above. The researchers didn't find the results completely conclusive and believe that in order to determine the true role media and its various mediums play in the classroom, further experimentation must occur.

A different perspective

Schools nationwide are pioneering the use of technology in classrooms and finding it has sparked a new wave of creativity and passion in students. Technology companies, such as Apple, have developed educational materials specifically for classroom use. These new mediums have lead to innovative ways to learn, though their effectiveness has not been scientifically tested. The article discusses students responses to the materials saying, "As a result of their mobile filmmaking work, many of the students have rediscovered a strong desire to learn and a passion for writing." Though a passion to learn is not the same as retention, it's a step in the right direction for education and its relationship with media.