Spatial ability and the impact of visualization/animation on learning electrochemistry

This study assessed the impact of computer animations illustrating the chemical reactions that occur inside a battery on students enrolled in a college introductory chemistry course. Students received two lectures on electrochemistry dealing with the chemical principles of how batteries generate electricity utilizing either animations or still diagrams. Students also completed a chemical knowledge test, a Flashlight pre-test and two chemistry content exams before receiving the lectures. A spatial ability test was given after the lectures and the students were classified as high or low spatial ability according to their spatial ability scores. The chemical knowledge and Flashlight pre-test and two previous content exams were used as covariates; the spatial ability test was used to assess any interaction of spatial ability and treatment. The dependent measures were two parts (knowledge and transfer) of a post-test on electrochemical concepts (labelled Post1 and Post2). On Post1, instructor-guided animations led to better performance than static diagrams. No interaction of spatial ability and treatment was observed. On Post2, there was no main effect of treatment, but there was a significant treatment by spatial ability interaction. Animations led to better performance overall, but more so for students with high spatial ability. These results imply that instructor-guided animations may help students acquire a better understanding of targeted chemistry concepts, and that the relationship between narration, spatial ability and computer animations illustrating chemical concepts and principles should be further investigated in future research.