The Effect of Static Pictures and Animation on Improving Learning: The Moderating Role of Visual Cues and Gender

Multimedia education embraces a combination of words and images which may include either written or spoken words, images or design, static pictures or dynamic ones as the animations. The animation can be effective for learning in two cases. First, when the events during the time are dynamic and changeable and the learner cannot learn through static images; second, when the learner is a beginner and cannot make a good mental model of the process, therefore cognitive load is enhanced. Animation can reduce the cognitive load of learning in beginners. The literature suggests that individuals with low spatial ability have a better performance with dynamic presentation and those with high spatial ability have a better performance with static images. Also, the issue of gender differences in multimedia education has been taken into consideration. The findings indicate that the presence of animation can effectively eliminate the performance differences in girls and boys. To enhance the effectiveness of animation in multimedia learning, application of visual cues could be of high importance. Visual cues are of two type: cues (e.g. color) which belong to the content are called internal cues, and cues (e.g. flash) that are detached from the content are called external cues. This study aimed to investigate the effect of visual cues, presentation forms (animation, & static picture) and their interaction on comprehension and transfer. The role of gender as a moderating variable in multimedia learning was also taken into account. Research questions: 1- With the spatial ability being controlled, to what extent does the use of animation versus static pictures affect transfer and comprehension?2- With the spatial ability being controlled, to what extent does the impact of animation versus static pictures on transfer and comprehension is modified by visual cues?3- With the spatial ability being controlled, to what extent does the impact of animation versus static pictures on transfer and comprehension is modified by gender?

The present study is of quasi-experimental design. The research variables included form of presentation (animation vs. static pictures) with two levels as the independent variable, comprehension and transfer of learning as the dependent variables, visual cues (color & Flash) with two levels and gender (male & female) with two levels as the moderator variables. The survey was done in summer semester of the year 1391-92 and included 120 male and female participants of Islamic Azad University of Mahdi Shahr, Semnan. The participants from different majors of Architecture, Law, Electronics and Computer Engineering took part in the study. 60 boys and girls were selected voluntarily and were randomly assigned to 8 groups. Educational content of the course focused on biology including an introduction to different hemispheres and parts of the brain. The first group received static pictures with the color cue, the second group static pictures with flash, the third group animation with flash and group 4 animation with colors. This grouping was applied to both males and females similarly. The same explanations were offered to the groups. Training duration was 15 minutes. The instruments used for data collection included a reading comprehension test, a test of learning transfer, and Wechsler’s revised IQ test for adults. The short form of this test contains 4 subtests. The data were analyzed through multivariate analysis of covariance.

The findings showed that animated form was more applicable in comparison to static picture in both comprehension and transfer tests. On the other hand visual cue of color in comparison to the visual cue of arrow had more effect on comprehension and transfer. No interaction effect was observed between the forms provided and the visual cues, but a significant interaction effect was found between gender and presentation formats. The average learning in presenting animation form was higher than that of static pictures in girls, but there was no significant difference in boys. In addition, there was no interaction effect between gender and visual cues. In designing multimedia environments and electronic contents using animation combined with color cues will increase the efficacy of learning. This is especially effective on girl's education rather than the education of boys. Practical implications of the findings are also discussed.

The results showed that when spatial ability is controlled, learning through animation will be higher than learning through static pictures in the comprehension test. The results of this study along with the results of previous studies lend support to the efficiency of animation. A possible explanation for this finding is that animation enhances learning motivation. The findings also showed that animation is superior to static picture in learning transfer. Also, it was found that the visual cue of color functions better than the arrow cue in the comprehension and learning transfer. A possible explanation is that because the internal cue is embedded in content it increases the level of attention. The study also found that there existed no significant interaction effect of presentation form and type of visual cues on comprehension and transfer. The effect of color cue was found to be the same in animation and static pictures. Another finding of this study was that with the spatial ability controlled, the girls had a better performance in comprehension and transfer of learning when received animation rather than static pictures. This finding is inconsistent with the explanation proposed in previous studies. In a previous study it was found that girls have a lower spatial ability than boys and the use of dynamic presentation can diminish the difference. It can be argued that women's cognitive and emotional processes interact with each other and emotions are activated accordingly. This will affect the working memory and cognitive processing of women. In summary, the use of animation combined with color cues can increase learning efficiency. This is especially the case with girls than boys.