Supporting visual and verbal learning preferences in a second language multimedia learning environment

Plass, J.L., Chun, D.M., Mayer, R.E., & Leutner, D. (1998). Supporting visual and verbal learning preferences in a second language multimedia learning environment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 25-36

The paper studies the importance of visual and verbal learning preferences for learning a second language. The study supports the theory of multimedia learning: learners actively select relevant verbal and visual information, organize the information into mental representations, and integrate
these newly constructed visual and verbal representations with one another.
The paper accepts Mayer’s theory of multimedia learning and also talks about learning environment, in which the learner can decide on his/her preference for learning.


Study looks at the differences in visualizers and verbalizers’ behavior in a multimedia learning environment.
Environment in this study: authentic second language learning environment with videos, pictures, and spoken words.
Two different levels of learning:
1- acquisition of single vocabulary items (a form of rote learning)
2- comprehension of the basic events in a text (a form of constructive learning)

Theory of multimedia learning
Selecting, organizing, and integrating
1-select verbal/visual information
2-organize them into verbal/visual representation
3-integrate verbal and visual by constructing referential connections between visual and verbal representations

-words that are coded in to modes (verbally and nonverbally) are better learned than only verbally coded words
vocabulary learning: rote learning
reading comprehension: constructing meaning

Learning Preferences: Visualizers and Verbalizers
-the way students interact with their environment and extract information from it.
-differences among students when they acquire and process visual versus verbal information.
-if the learner is not presented with the preferred mode of information, the word understanding can be less.

Results of experiment:
-learning of the translation of the German words is better when learners can select two modes (verbal and visual) then one mode alone, which is better than selection of none.
-recall of the translations of German words is better when preferred mode is used to retrieve them

Conclusion:
-students learn more effectively when they can select visual and verbal modes than when they have access to only one mode or neither.
-visualizers benefit from visual modes of presented material more than do verbalizers,
-verbalizers benefit more from verbal modes of presented material than do visualizers.

Attribute X Treatment interaction (ATI) between learning preferences and type of information:
-visualizers performed better on visual and verbal annotations than only for verbal annotations and verbalizers performed well on both types of propositions.

The study:
-suggests that learners should have options for selecting and processing material presented in both visual and verbal modes.
-provides evidence for Mayer’s theory of multimedia learning
-suggests concerns for different learning preferences of individuals.