Enabling, Facilitating, and Inhibiting Effects of Animations in Multimedia Learning: Why Reduction of Cognitive Load Can Have Negative Results on Learning

New technologies allow the display of text, static visuals, and animations. Although animations are inherently attractive, they are not always beneficial for learning. Problems may arise especially when animations modify the learner’s cognitive load in an unintended way. In two learning experiments with 40 and 26 university students, the effects of animated pictures on knowledge acquisition were investigated. Some pictures displayed visual simulations of changes over time, whereas other pictures could be manipulated by learners to represent different states in time. Results showed that manipulation pictures had an enabling function for individuals with high learning prerequisites, whereas simulation pictures had a facilitating function for individuals with low learning prerequisites. However, the facilitating function was not beneficial for learning, because learners were prevented from performing relevant cognitive processes on their own. A careful analysis of the interrelation between different kinds of cognitive load and the process of learning is therefore required. Computer-based multimedia learning environments can provide rapid access to information. They can display multiple representations, and they can enhance active learning through interactivity and exploration. However, these learning environments can also introduce new demands for learners. In many environments learners have to orient themselves and to navigate within complex information spaces. They have to search for and evaluate information, and they have to understand and integrate multiple representations to build coherent knowledge structures. One of the frequently used features in computer-based multimedia learning environments is animation. Any element on a computer screen can be animated, but the most frequent use of animation concerns animated pictures. Animated pictures can be used to support 3-D perception by showing an object from varying perspectives. They can be used to direct the observer’s attention to important (and unimportant) aspects of a display, convey procedural knowledge (e.g., in software training), demonstrate the dynamics of a subject matter, and allow exploratory learning through manipulating a displayed object. Furthermore, they can have a supplantative effect (Salomon, 1994), when they help learners to perform a cognitive process that they could not otherwise perform without this external support. Despite a widespread belief that animation is a powerful instructional device, however, it is still an open question under which conditions animated pictures really enhance comprehension and learning (Tversky, Morrison, & Betrancourt, 2002).