The Redundancy Principle in Multimedia Learning

Mayer, R.E. (Ed.) (2005). Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. New York: Cambridge. [Chapters 10]
The Redundancy Principle in Multimedia Learning, Sweller


The redundancy effect occurs when additional information presented to learners results in learning decrements compared to presentations of less information. 
when the additional information is a negative effect on the learner, and redundant. 


Research on redundancy effect:
 Miller (1937) : pictures while learning how to read is redundant
(Why?  A major task in learning how to read is to identify the combination of letters, but if there is a picture, children would look at the picture and the picture would hold space in wm, which would be a load.)


 Reder and Anderson (1980, 1982) original vs summarized texts. the subjects learned better when given summarized text.
 Carroll (1990, 1987) : worked on minimal manual for computer applications. Found summary of text was better than full text
 Mayer, Bove, Bryman, Mars and Tapangco (1996) summary vs full text 
 Chandler and Sweller (1991) diagrams and text.
 Kalyuga, Chandler and Sweller (1999) on written vs spoken text redundancy
 Mayer, Heiser, and Lonn (2001) : on animations with concurrent spoken text. Found that additional concurrent written text was redundant.


Expertise reversal effect: occurs when an instructional design  is effective for novice learners, loses its effective on expert learners.


Instructional implications:
Eliminate all redundant materials presented to learners and all redundant activity.
When determining whether an information is redundant or not:
 - is the diagram intelligible? if so, the text may be redundant.
 - does the text add essential information? if so, it is not redundant
 - is the text complex? if so, it should not be presented with the diagram