The instructional benefit of visuals has a long history in the research (Tversky et al., 2002) and perhaps is best summarized in Mayer’s (2001, p. 184) multimedia principle: “Students learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.” The terms visual , graphic , and image
are used interchangeably in the literature. A visual is typically thought of as a form of
communication that is not verbal. Braden (1996) identified five categories of visuals that have been studied by educational researchers: