MAYER'S COGNITIVE THEORY OF MULTIMEDIA LEARNING

Just before starting, I want to give a brief information about Multimedia Principle. Multimedia principle states that words and visuals together, leads to better learning than learning by words only.

Now, what is that Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning?

Multimedia learning is based on 3 assumptions.

The Dual-Channel Assumption

There are two channels that processes the information Auditory channel &Visual channel.People take information which is visual or written via visual channel and take which is verbal(spoken) via auditory channel.

The Limited-Capacity Assumption

Limited-Capacity Assumption states that both channels have a limited capacity to take information.For instance, trying to process written and spoken text at the same time or watching tv and reading book at the same time is not ideal.

The Active-Processing Assumption

Active-Processing Assumption states that learners do not passively get the information but they should select the relevants,organize them and integrate them with new inputs and prior knowledge.

In Multimedia Presentation part there are visuals and sounds, human sees visuals by eyes and hear sounds by ears which occur in Sensory Memory part. In Working Memory part ears select sounds and eyes select visuals for further processing, also in this Working Memory,human cannot hold and manipulate more than just a few pieces of information but can organize those selected visuals into a Pictorial Model and sounds into Verbal Model. Lastly learner collects new information with prior knowledge from Long Term Memory.                                                                              

 As you can see there are 3 cognitive procesess.

1)Selecting visuals and verbals

2)Organizing visuals and verbals

3)Integrating (new and prior knowledge)

This is how learner learn meaningfully .