What is the value of adding pictures to
words? Do students learn more deeply from
words and pictures than from words alone?
These questions are essential to the study of
multimedia learning. For example, suppose I
asked you to listen to a short explanation of
how a bicycle tire pump works: “When the
handle is pulled up, the piston moves up,
the inlet valve opens, the outlet valve closes,
and air enters the lower part of the cylinder.
When the handle is pushed down, the piston
moves down, the inlet valve closes, the outlet
valve opens, and air moves out through
the hose.” Then, I ask you to write down
an explanation of how a bicycle tire pump
works (i.e., retention test) and to write answers
to problem-solving questions such as
“Suppose you push down and pull up the
handle of a pump several times but no air
comes out. What could have gone wrong?”
(i.e., transfer test). If you are like most of
the students in our research studies (Mayer
& Anderson, 1991, 1992), you remembered
some of the words in the presentation (i.e.,
you did moderately well on retention) but
you had difficulty in using the material to
answer problem-solving questions (i.e., you
did poorly on transfer).