The modality effect in multimedia learning: theoretical and empirical limitations

Numerous studies in the field of multimedia learning have confirmed the modality principle, which claims that the presentation of pictures with auditory texts leads to better learning outcomes than the presentation of pictures with visual text. However, there are still some doubts concerning the theoretical explanation and the boundary conditions of the modality principle. An overview is given with regard to these two points. Furthermore, two experiments are reported, which aimed at clarifying the theoretical explanation (Experiment 1) and the boundary conditions of the modality effect (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 was conducted to test whether the modality effect occurs irrespective of the temporal contiguity of text and pictures. In Experiment 2, it was investigated, if the modality principle also holds for longer, complex texts and if the time available for information processing acts as a moderating variable.