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

5.3. Psychological Reasons for the Modality Principle

If the purpose of the instructional program is to present information as efficiently as possible, then it does not matter whether you present graphics with printed text or graphics with spoken text. In both cases, identical pictures and words are presented, so it does not matter whether the words are presented as printed text or spoken text. This approach to multimedia design is suggested by the information acquisition view of learning—the idea that the instructor's job is to present information and the learner's job is to acquire information. Following this view, the rationale for using on-screen text is that it is generally easier to produce printed text rather than spoken text and that ...