Abstract
This study has several key purposes that evolve out of the
research limitations just cited. They are to:
1.) initiate a more systematic, multi-dimensional
examination of graphics presented within externally paced, simultaneous audio/visual formats;
2.) verify whether graphics that are classified according to their instructional function will have similar learning effects within a video format as in a print format;
3.) bring more refinement to the examination of graphic learning effects by measuring multiple levels of mental operations in interaction with more ecologically valid instructional subject matter;
4.) gain a better sense of the cognitive dynamics accompanying the processing of graphics in an externally paced, simultaneous audio/visual format by exploring various subject perceptions surrounding the relative mental effort they have expended; and 5.) gain a better sense of the effects of contextual
and learner variables on processing of the graphics
by measuring relative levels of prior subject matter knowledge and the alteration of viewing instructions.
