Self-regulated learning from illustrated text: Eye movement modelling to support use and regulation of cognitive processes during learning from multimedia

BackgroundWhen learning with text and pictures, learners often fail to adequately process the materials, which can be explained as a failure to self-regulate one's learning by choosing adequate cognitive learning processes. Eye movement modelling examples (EMME) showing how to process multimedia instruction have improved elementary school children's learning from text and pictures in previous studies. AimsWe tested whether the positive effects of EMME for improving self-regulated multimedia learning extend to university students and teaching of more comprehensive processing strategies. Moreover, we investigated whether EMME's effectiveness depends upon a learner's cognitive prerequisites. SampleParticipants were 50 university students (38 female; M=26.88years) with different study majors. MethodsDifferent prior knowledge aspects were assessed as cognitive prerequisites. Before learning about mitosis from a multimedia instruction, students either received no intervention or saw EMME demonstrating various multimedia learning processes. Learning outcomes and eye movements served as dependent variables. ResultsLearners in the EMME group showed more intense processing of pictures and more frequent transitions between text and pictures. Weaker learners showed poorer recall performance after having studied EMME, whereas EMME had no effect on stronger students. In the forced-choice verification task, stronger students benefitted from EMME, whereas no effect occurred for weaker students. The picture-processing time was suited to explain the positive effects of EMME for stronger students. ConclusionsOur results indicate that EMME illustrating a comprehensive set of cognitive processes support multimedia learning for stronger university students.