Document Type : Original Research Paper
Authors
Department of Educational Science, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Education and learning are based on correct communication and this communication is dependent on choosing the right media. Multimedia is one of the most effective media for learning due to its many advantages. But in some cases, despite spending a lot of time and cost on multimedia design, the results are not satisfactory. Failure to pay attention to the principles of educational design, individual characteristics of learners, learning processes, and human cognitive structure in many cases leads to ineffective multimedia design and production that prevent learning. One of the influential theories on educational design is cognitive load theory. In poor designs, such as the effect of split attention, where complementary and essential information is not located near each other, it imposes an additional load on the memory and disrupts the processing and learning. As a result of the split attention due to the limited capacity of active memory, it is assumed that if the image and the related text are placed in the vicinity of each other, the cognitive processing of the two contents will be done at the same time and optimal cognitive resources will be consumed. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of split attention in multimedia on learning and the perceived cognitive load of students with self-regulation moderation.
Methods: This research was practical in terms of purpose and in terms of method, it was quasi-experimental research with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research included all the female students of the third-grade primary schools in Hamedan in the academic year 2022-2023. In this research, Rah Noor 1 girls' primary school was selected using the available sampling method. Among 24 third-grade students, 12 were placed in the experimental group and 12 in the control group using random assignment. To determine the level of students' self-regulation, Buford’s (1995) self-regulation questionnaire was used. For education, the researcher made two educational multimedia, which included educational multimedia with the effect of dividing attention and educational multimedia without this effect. A week before the training, the learning pre-test was performed on the students of both groups. The students of both groups completed the PASS (1992) cognitive load (mental effort) scale in the middle and at the end of the training and immediately participated in the learning post-test. In this research, SPSS statistical software was used to provide descriptive statistics (dispersion and centrality indices) and inferential statistics (Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, ANCOVA, and independent t-test) for data analysis.
Findings: The results showed that the control group performed better in the learning tests than the experimental group (split attention effect) and received less cognitive load. However, the findings indicated that self-regulation had no significant moderating role in learning and the perceived cognitive load of students who were under multimedia education with the effect of split attention.
Conclusion: If the text and image information are integrated, there is less need to search and process. Therefore, less additional load is imposed on the memory and thus facilitates learning. Self-regulating students do not have the possibility of optimal processing without training appropriate strategies for processing non-optimal designs, because they face two types of additional load imposed on their memory.
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© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
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