e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning

7.6. Evidence for Omitting Extraneous Graphics

What happens when entertaining but irrelevant video clips are placed within a narrated animation? Mayer, Heiser, and Lonn (2001) asked students to view a three-minute narrated animation on lightning formation, like the one described in the previous section. For some students, the narrated animation contained six ten-second video clips intended to make the presentation more entertaining, yielding a total presentation lasting four minutes. For example, one video clip showed trees bending against strong winds, lightning striking into the trees, an ambulance arriving along a path near the trees, and a victim being carried in a stretcher to the ambulance near a crowd of onlookers. At the same time, the ...